At War's End
by Jack Reaver
Summary: When the smoke has cleared and the eerie green light has died down, we join the Normandy crew after they crash land. This is Tali's story, with focus shifting a few times for sake of progress.
1. Chapter 1

At War's End: Restarting After Synthesis

_Author's Notes: This chapter is all about the immediate situation after Shepard launched the Synthesis solution from the Crucible. It may seem centered on Ashley, but that's only because she's in charge. The meat of the actual story focuses on Tali._

Chapter 1: Getting back on their feet

After the flashes of green were gone, it took the crew of the Normandy some time to regain their bearing from the crash. They all felt noticeably different, but no one could put a finger on exactly what it was.

Dazed but with a sense of urgency, Ashley piped up over the intercom, "We need to get a handle on our situation. First things first, I want accountability of the crew. Then we need to go do some recon. Sensors are down, so we are flying blind until we can get some repairs done. I want any healthy tech personal at their stations as soon as possible. We need damage control reports ASAP." No one disagreed or argued with her and everyone immediately started to scramble to make sure the remaining crewmen were alright. Being the Executive Officer of the Normandy, command fell to her by default in Shepard's absence.

Starting from the bottom up, Ashley and Dr Chakwas went from deck to deck of the Normandy to get a grasp on injuries and casualties. In the shuttle bay, Vega was tending to the weapons, as they did not know what planet they were on and would likely need them for recon. Cortez was doing some patchwork on the Kodiak shuttle. It took more than a few bumps and bruises from the crash during the last push of the battle.

On the engineering deck, Diana Allers was helping Adams splint a broken leg for Javik. "This injury is nothing. I was more than prepared to lay down my life in order to stop the Reapers." he said. The vengeful ancient seemed to more engrossed with their victory than the fact that his leg was broken in three places. He was actually smiling for the first time since being awakened from cryogenic stasis.

"Adams, have you seen the other engineers?" Ashley called over his shoulder.

He replied, "Tali went up to the med bay to get some dextro medi gel. I haven't seen Donnelly and Daniels since before we hit the last relay, ma'am." Ashley immediately knew where they were and what they were doing… She figured she would at least give them a little privacy, considering what they had all just gone through.

On the crew deck, Liara was bandaging a nasty gash on her arm. Dr. Chakwas immediately went over to help her. Garrus was in the main battery mumbling to himself about all the damage to such fine weapons as their Thanix cannons and but seemed to perk up when he realized how long the calibrations would take after getting them fixed. Tali was in the med bay patching a small suit rupture.

On the command deck, Traynor was doing everything she could to get the comm system back up and running. Liara had sent Glyph to assist her since she was taking the deaths of the navigations crew pretty hard. Private Campbell and Ensign Copeland were in the war room lining up fallen shipmates.

"Ma'am, there was an explosion in here. No one inside the war room survived." said Private Campbell. Ashley could see the tears streaming down her cheek.

Ashley looked around at the damage. "Where is your partner, private? Bethany isn't under all…"

Campbell cut her off, "Westmoreland is in the head. She started vomiting as soon as she caught a whiff of burning flesh. She's shaken up pretty bad, but she's alive, ma'am."

Ashley breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's definitely good to hear. And don't worry. Once we are situated, we'll make sure all our shipmates get a proper burial."

EDI was in the cockpit running scans of Joker to make sure he was okay. He was out cold, but breathing. "Commander Williams. I have taken some unusual readings on Joker" she said. Ashley raised an eyebrow and walked closer.

"What is it EDI? Trouble?" Ashley asked with concern showing through her voice.

"Quite the opposite, commander. Given the force we crashed at, Joker's bones should have all been broken and he should be dead. However, he is merely unconscious." A hint of gleeful surprise hit Ashley's face. "That is not all, commander. There seems to be a very faint glow running in lines that are emitting an ultra-low frequency pulse of an as of yet unidentifiable energy along his entire body."

That caught Ashley's attention. After hearing EDI say that, Ashley immediately noticed that the same faint lines were running along EDI's body as well. She looked down at her hand through her torn glove and saw that these same lines were on her as well. Ashley's leadership training shone through her confusion. "We can deal with that later. For now, we need to get as much of the ship up and running as possible and find out where we are". EDI nodded and picked up Jeff's limp body and lay him in a recovery position on his side. She then proceeded to interface with the ship's systems to get repairs started.

After a few hours of diligent scrambling, the reports from all sections were in. 80% of ship function was restored, and recon of the immediate area around the ship showed that the planet they landed on was very hospitable to life. The casualty count, however, was staggering. Only eighteen of crew's total of fifty members had survived, and Commander Shepard never returned from the Crucible. Ashley called all remaining crewmen to the CIC.

She stood in front of everyone and spoke. "I know things look grim. We're all but stranded on who knows where, but I'm proud that you all busted your hump to get so much done in such a short time. I think this goes without saying it, but you all know that since so few of us are left, that we'll have to work together to get through this."

"Pardon me, commander". Glyph chimed in. "I would like to inform you that my automated repair of the primary comm system is now complete. Repair of the Quantum Entanglement system's GUI interface is currently at 50%. Also, upon EDI's request to do so after repairs were complete, I have sent out a distress call." No sooner than Glyph could finish the statement did the comm immediately flash with a hail. The group all cheered.

Traynor got to her comm terminal to answer the hail. "Normandy SR-2, this is Matriarch Lidanya hailing from Asari fleet flagship dreadnought Destiny Ascension. Do you copy? I repeat, Normandy SR-2 this is flagship Destiny Ascension. Are you receiving this transmission?"

"Matriarch Lidanya, this is Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor aboard the Normandy. Be advised, we are down. Multiple casualties and injuries. Repairs underway, but we do not have propulsion and nav systems are still out. Can you track and pinpoint our location?"

"Good to see you have survivors, Normandy! Our nav triangulation read out puts you at Eden Prime on the far southern continent. Rescue efforts seem unnecessary since it is a colony world, but are also impossible at this time. Satellite images show that every mass relay has suffered extensive damage, some even destroyed."

While everyone was tense at that revelation, they all understood that they would be fine given they landed on a colony world. Ashley stepped up and took over the comm. "Matriarch Lidanya, this is acting commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams. We thank you for the info. Please pass on to any surviving Alliance leadership that we will make contact with the colony government and set up here for the foreseeable future. Normandy SR-2 out."

"Roger that Commander Williams. Goddess grant you luck. Destiny Ascension out."

Having been stationed on Eden Prime before, Ashley felt comfort in the fact that they were stuck there. She turned to the crew and spoke. "If we're on the southern continent, it explains why James and Garrus saw nothing but lush jungle. Eden Prime's government declared this entire continent to be a wildlife refuge. No colonists were allowed to set up down here." Ashley looked over to Traynor. "I want you to open another hailing frequency. The Wildlife Preserve Rangers should have picked up the signal from the last call and will likely be trying to find us." Samantha got to it right away and Ashley turned to the rest of the crew. "Everyone get packed. We'll likely be leaving shortly. EDI, I want you and Glyph to stay aboard the Normandy and continue repairs until we can coordinate a pick up. Alright everyone, dismissed."

The crew dispersed and went about gathering their things and finishing up what work they had begun. Minutes later, Traynor got word from the Wildlife Preserve Ranger sergeant on duty that there was help on the way.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Invisible Friend

Amidst all the hustle and bustle, Tali had not even noticed that the rupture in her suit that she repaired right after the crash had accidently been reopened. Something like that would have been life threatening, and it would have immediately caught her eye, but she was going about her business as if it had not even happened. Then she heard the voice.

"Creator Zorah. The clamp holding the damaged section of your suit has failed. It requires your immediate attention." The voice was from her new friend, a Geth that volunteered to be her suit's AI. When Shepard brokered the peace between the now fully intelligent and independent Geth and the Quarians, many Geth began to upload into Quarian suits' environmental programs to begin improvements. They would act like viruses so the Quarian's system could learn to fight and adapt better. And when they would speak, she had to turn off her vocalizer so she didn't look crazy to her crewmates. She hadn't even told anyone about her on board geth except Shepard.

Tali looked and finally saw the reopened puncture. She was surprised that she hadn't started feeling sick. "Thank you, but I am actually fine. Normally, I would have started to feel the fever set in by now, but for some reason; I am feeling really healthy today." The Geth personality did not pursue the issue further. Tali's vitals were all in the green, so there was no argument as to her state of health. Tali continued, "You know, you can just call me Tali. If we are going to be together all the time, there is no need for rigid formality."

"Acknowledged. From here on out, Creator Zorah will be referred to simply as Tali".

Tali couldn't help but giggle a bit. "And since we are going to be partners, I should call you by a name."

"This individual's nomenclature among the consensus was #83082."

Tali giggled again. "No… That's more like a serial number. You need a name. A label. Something I can call you by when you are back in your body." Just then, Tali felt that all too familiar itch in that one spot on her back that she couldn't reach. Reaching frantically to try to quell the itch, she wound up muttering, "Stupid bosh'tet suit prison…"

The geth personality, now a fully fledged individual intelligence, took minor offense to that comment. "Creator Zorah… Tali. Have I done something to upset you?"

Tali stopped rubbing her back on the raised section of the bulkhead and stuttered, "Oh no no! I didn't mean to insult you. There's just this one place that I always seem to catch an annoying itch and can't reach. I was referring to the suit itself as kind of a prison."

"But Tali, I am the suit. Does that not make me a prison?" Tali stopped to think. Technically, at the moment, the geth personality was her suit, thus her prison. Her thoughts then shot to the man she loved; Jackson Shepard. The thought of his disappearance on the Citadel was still a fresh wound, but she remembered one of the random conversations they were having about differences in human culture and quarian culture. It had eventually veered toward crime and punishment, and she remembered explaining how the Migrant Fleet used extra monitored labor and exile as its primary forms of punishment. Jack had explained to her how incarceration was the primary form of punishment for humans, as they didn't have to worry about the strain on resources like holding prisoners caused to the flotilla.

"Alcatraz", she blurted. Jack had told her about Alcatraz Island and how it was one of the most famous and effective prisons in human history. The geth personality instantly searched extranet databases to identify the unfamiliar term. After finding the results and cross referencing the meaning (Alcatraz being the prison and it being an island referring to it being an individual), it spoke.

"Acknowledged. Referenced meaning of term, and accept the applicable analogy. This individual unit's designated nomenclature has been changed. My name is Alcatraz."

With that resolved, she went back to reenacting a scene from a 20th century animated vid that starred a bear and a human child.

When she finally got it taken care of, her thoughts shifted to her health. Why had she not felt sick with an open puncture in her suit? She knew that Alcatraz and other geth uploading into suits was helping quarians to fight their natural immunodeficiency, but she and all the other quarians had figured it would take years before they could live without their suits. It had only been a few months since they took back Rannoch and made peace with the geth. She went to the CIC to make a few comm calls.

On her way up, Glyph had announced over the intercom that repair of the Quantum Entanglement Communicator was complete. She asked for and was granted permission to use it. She called up the resistance forward operating base on Earth that they had all staged the final push of the battle from. Since most of the other fleets were stuck in the Sol system until something could be done about the mass relays, the leadership of each fleet began setting up shop there as a makeshift joint command base.

When her hail was answered she asked to speak with an available Quarian leadership. The comm officer told her he would connect her to Admiral Raan. When the image on the QEC flickered into view, Tali gasped hard and literally fainted! A few minutes later, she came to and looked again at the sight that had made her faint. Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay stood before her… without her enviro-suit!

Through her shock, Tali managed to spit out, "Auntie Raan, what in the name of the ancestors are you doing without your suit?! At your age, you would die in an hour!" Raan giggled a bit and rubbed the back of her hand in front of the camera.

"Do not worry child", she said in a soothing voice. " Every quarian that survived the battle and is here on Earth is without their suit and mask now". Tali turned pale inside her suit. She was utterly blown away and shocked into dead silence.

After a moment, Alcatraz spoke up, "Tali, your heart rate has increased exponentially. I would suggest calm relaxation."

Tali swallowed the lump in her throat and mustered the will to say; "How? How is such a thing possible? I know the geth were helping us along, but we all thought it would be years before this could happen."

Rubbing her hand again, Admiral Raan said calmly, "Tali, look closely." She pointed out the ever so faint green lines that pulsed down her body. "No one knows what it is, but everyone, man, woman, and child of all species, all things alive or with artificial intelligence now have these marks. From what we can tell, it was the result of Shepard firing the Crucible. We aren't sure yet, but thus far Admiral Xen and some of our other scientists think that whatever this phenomenon is, along with the geth assisting us, has moved us farther forward than we could have imagined!"

Tali was again stunned to silence and her heart pumped harder. "Tali…"

"I know, Alcatraz. This is just a lot to take in." She thought on it for a moment. Suddenly a mixture of bravery and stupidity hit her like comet. "Alcatraz, initiate override protocol and decouple my right hand glove from the suit. Code word: 'Home free'."

"Tali, even with this new information, I would advise against doing anything rash." Raan just smiled. Tali didn't turn off her vocalizer, but Raan knew who she was talking to.

"I take it Alcaltraz is the name of your geth partner?" Raan said, knowing the answer. Tali nodded and turned her attention back to Alcatraz.

"Do it!"

"Acknowledged."

Tali heard the seal assembly release from the glove at the forearm just before the elbow and she tugged at it, fervently. When it gave, she stared at her own flesh for the first time in a long time. Sure enough, running down the length of her arm were the same faint green lines.

"Auntie Raan, I'll call you back!" Tali quickly killed the connection and ran to her quarters. When she got there, she ordered to Alcatraz, "Initiate full suit override!"

"Acknowledged." Alcatraz overrode the safety protocol for the entire suit and Tali stripped. She looked in awe at herself in the full length mirror on the wall and saw she had the marks all over. More amazing was the fact that she was out of her suit and had not gone through the proper procedure of disinfecting and decontaminating, yet she was still standing, as healthy as ever. Emboldened by this new turn, she got on the room's comm.

"Engineering, this is Tali. Daniels, can you come to my quarters?"

"I'll be right up. What's going on? You sound pretty excited." Daniels answered.

"Just come up quick. I want to show you something." Tali cut the connection and went back to admiring her marks in the mirror.

After a few minutes, Daniels got to Tali's room, knocked on the door and walked in. "I came as soon as I could. What's on your… WHOA! Naked quarian!" Daniels instinctively covered her eyes and looked away.

Tali giggle out loud like a giddy school girl. "I know! Isn't it great Gabby?!"

Gabby was confused. "Wait, what? How are you not on the floor convulsing with anaphylactic shock? And it doesn't bother you to be bare buck naked in front of someone?"

Tali stopped giggling and thought about that. Having been virtually trapped in their suits and confined to the tight quarters of the Migrant Fleet for three centuries, Quarians had pretty much lost all sense of shame over their own physical form and had little concept of personal space.

With her back to Tali, Gabby spoke up. "Hold tight, I'll go get you something to wear. We are close to about the same size, and I'd imagine you don't want to get back in the suit after being in it for so long."

Tali was so excited by that statement, all she could do in response was let out a little squeak. She was going to go back to admiring her marks in the mirror, but she remembered Alcatraz was still in her suit. Thinking quickly, she began devising a way to carry him around with her until she was able to get him back to his body.

An idea came to her and she called up into the air. "EDI, are you online?"

"Yes, Tali." came the disembodied voice of the ship.

"Could I borrow some components from one of your holographic projectors? I have a small task I want to take care of before we leave the ship."

"Of course. Since I occupied my mobile platform, I hardly project my image to the crew anymore." EDI replied.

"Thanks EDI." Then, almost as if on cue, Gabby came back into Tali's room with a few of her extra uniforms in one hand, the other covering her eyes.

"Here you go. That should keep you warm for awhile." Gabby said with a chuckle. With all her excitement and adrenaline (or the quarian equivelant), Tali had not realized that it was actually relatively chilly in the ship. After being in the suit for so long, quarians only ever really got chilly when they got out of the suit to take a decon shower or were in a place that was cold enough to get through the suit's climate control (like Noveria).

Tali gave the all clear for Gabby to open her eyes. "Ok. How do I look?" Gabby looked over to the now fully dressed Quarian. She couldn't help but notice that besides the three fingers and the different legs, quarians were built very similarly to humans. Right down to facial structure. Tali's skin was a pale lavender tone and her hair was long and a pretty shade of dark raven purple. She thought these were cute and fitting qualities for Tali.

Gabby smiled a crooked little grin. "I'm telling you right now. You may want to avoid Kenneth. His perv tendencies will certainly get a workout the first time he sees you 'disrobed'."

Tali was a bit confused. "Really? Why?"

Gabby stood Tali in front of the mirror and stood next to her. Tali began to see what she meant. The top fit a bit loose, because a difference in bust, Gabby's being bigger. But Gabby's pants fit somewhat tight on Tali. Her hips were a good bit wider than Gabby's, and they had caught Kenneth's attention in the past. He was an ass man.

"Don't worry, Tali. I'll keep him on a short leash." Gabby said mischievously. After being partners in crime for so many years, Ken and Gabby finally took their relationship to the next level. However, Gabby knew full well that wouldn't keep his eyes from wandering.

Tali smiled. "Well, at least it's good to know I'm attractive by human standards." Right after that sentence passed through her lips, she was again thinking of her missing love. Was he alive and well? Gravely wounded? Dead? She rattled the thought from her head and moved on to the here and now.

Tali gathered up some of the smaller components from one of EDI's projectors, the module from her suit that Alcatraz was housed in, and the necklace Shepard had given to her as a gift on their last trip to Illium. She fashioned a small device that could be worn around her neck to carry Alcatraz around. She powered it on and a red hologram of a Geth Prime's three eyed photoreceptor (flashlight head) appeared in front of her.

"Sorry for the delay, Alcatraz. Do you approve of your new accommodations?" she asked.

"Yes. And since I am still housed in close proximity to your omni-tool, I can still access the extranet. I can even project images from the extranet larger than your omni-tool could. This platform is certainly acceptable until we can get back to my body."

Wholly satisfied with her work, Tali slipped on the boots from her suit and went about the business of gathering what few belongings she had aboard the Normandy, which now included the rest off her enviro-suit, and packing them up to transport to the closest colony settlement when the Rangers got there.

She made for the airlock and stepped out to see Joker and EDI looking out over a cliff near the crash site. EDI had rested her head on Joker's shoulder, and that got Tali thinking about Shepard again. She let out an exasperated sigh and looked to the clouds.

Her sigh got Joker's attention and he looked over his shoulder to see who it was. Utterly perplexed at the unfamiliar figure in front of him, he simply let out a coy, "Who?" with both index fingers pointed her way.

EDI turned slowly, and upon seeing her said plainly, "Hello, Tali." Joker's jaw literally dropped as low as it could hang and stuck there a moment. Seconds later, the rest of the crew made their way out of the airlock. Joker's reaction was reiterated by more than one of the other crew members.


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: Just so you all know, in my version, the Crucible energy only shows on flesh and on machinery that is home to AI._

Chapter 3: Re-Introduction and Re-Integration

"Will you get an eyeful of that? Now THAT is some mighty fine arse! Ow! Sorry Gabby."

The crew all circled around Tali, every one of them with a baffled look on their face. All of them except for Javik. He was only one that had seen a Quarian without a mask before.

Javik , who was hobbled by a broken leg on the mend, limped in front of her and looked her from head to toe, nodding in approval. "As I said before, even in my cycle, Quarians were considered to be attractive. It is good to see that this much has not changed over the course of fifty thousand years." Tali's pale lavender cheeks blushed a shade of blue and Javik shot her a smile before limping back into the small crowd.

James went up next. He looked her straight in the eye. Her eyes were a bright cerulean blue. "Well, I guess I can't call you Sparks anymore. What gives? I always kind of figured your eyes naturally glowed like that."

The crew all let out a collective gasp as Alcatraz projected himself from Tali's necklace. "I can answer that, Lieutenant Vega. While uploaded into Tali's suit, I noticed there was a program built into the visor that not only projected read outs onto the inside for the Quarian to take in information, but also highlighted the Quarian's eyes on the outside."

EDI stepped in and said; "That is correct. According to historical documents, the Quarian Admiralty Board added this as a mandate for all suits produced after an incident where a young Quarian on Pilgrimage at the Citadel was made to stand trial for grand theft and was caught sleeping in the court hearing. And it's good to see you are not just the voice in Tali's head anymore."

Alcatraz modified his projection to a scaled down, man sized version of his Geth Prime body. "Hello, EDI."

Tali, now feeling she was on the spot and had some explaining to do, fidgeted with her now unsheathed hands and shyly spoke up. "Hi, everyone. It's me. The real me. And this is Alcatraz. He has been my suit's brain since we liberated Rannoch a few months back. He was the Prime unit that first informed us of Legion's dissolution and officially invited the Quarians to live back on the homeworld. As soon as we get a chance, I want to put him back in his Prime body."

Everyone was still in a mild state of shock, but given all that had been going on, no one questioned anything. Oddly enough, James was the first to speak.

"Alcatraz, huh? She named you after 'The Rock' back on Earth? When you get back to your body, maybe we should get you a more fitting paint job. I only ever saw Primes sporting red or white." James said with a smirk. Tali thought to herself, knowing Vega and his penchant for nicknaming everyone, he'd probably be referring to Alcatraz as Rock from then on.

Two others in the crowd were seemingly looking away on purpose; Donnelly and Traynor. Kenneth had a hard enough time keeping his mouth shut about Tali's "mighty fine arse" while she was still in the suit. He didn't want to exacerbate the beating he was going to get from Gabby for staring when they first got off the ship. He couldn't help it. He was weak… and an ass man. Then there was Samantha, who was openly gay. She had to keep herself in check when dealing with Tali while she still suited up. She certainly did not want to cause an issue now that she was free from it, especially since Shepard's disappearance was still fresh.

A sudden spark of curiosity came over Tali. "Hold on… Javik is smiling and Joker isn't limping around? Did I miss something?"

Javik let out a good hearted laugh and stepped forward again. "I have been a warrior for my entire existence. To know now that the enemy I was sworn from birth to fight is no longer a threat seems to have had a very positive effect on my disposition." That was a perfectly rational explanation. Everyone seemed to agree with him on that point.

Ashley jumped in. "You know, I still want to know why we don't have to bury Joker with the rest of our crew. How the hell are you even alive, much less not having to hobble around anymore?"

"I have no idea Boss Lady, but if I get some inside track info, I'll pass you a memo." Joker said in his usual snide tone.

Tali remembered her conversation with Auntie Raan and rubbed the back of her hand. When that topic came back to her mind, she spoke up. "When I called the resistance FOB on Earth and spoke with Admiral Raan, she said that Admiral Xen and her scientists are speculating that our recovery has something to do with these marks, and that these marks are the result of that green energy from the Crucible. Maybe the marks have also improved his Vrolik's Syndrome."

Most of the crew had seen the marks by then. Privates Campbell and Westmoreland were noticing theirs for the first time, as were Ensign Copeland and Lieutenant Cortez.

Joker's head tilted. "You know, ever since I woke up, I have felt more… I don't know... alive. I hadn't really paid much attention to the marks until EDI pointed them out. And I noticed that I didn't have to limp to walk anymore. Maybe the funky track marks are making me healthy." Joker got a dose of bravery and walked over to James. "Hey, Vega. Hit me."

"What are you talking about? I'm not going to hit you."

Joker got into his face. "Come on! Hit me!"

"Back off, cabron… I don't want to break you in half."

Joker got bold and silly and started dancing around James. "Oh come on. You Mohawk wearing, pea-brained, Magilla Gorilla looking, sorry excuse for a leader! Gimme all you got!"

Everyone looking on feared for his safety and knew what was coming. Without even reaching back to wind up, James exploded forward with a loud grunt, landing his massive fist square on Joker's jaw. Jeff reeled back with such force that he ran right into the tree they were standing under and fell forward, face-planting into the soft dirt.

Dr. Chakwas immediately ran to his side to start scanning him. Before she could even get the program up on her omni-tool, Joker popped up to his feet, threw his hands in the air and yelled, "That was AWESOME!" Dr. Chakwas couldn't help but feel a strange sense of deja vu.

The group all let out a collective groan. Tali quipped, "Alcatraz, initiate command prompt 'facepalm'." Joker's face went from a huge smile to a confused look with a raised eyebrow.

Alcatraz and EDI both said in unison, "That was a joke." That got the group to laugh as a whole while Joker was left with the confused look on his face.

EDI chimed in. "I don't mean to break up this hardy moment, but it seems we have company." Sure enough, the Wildlife Preserve Rangers had arrived to transport them to the closest colony settlement. Everyone grabbed their gear and got on board while Glyph and EDI went back to making repairs.


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Notes: This chapter spreads the spotlight on the team as they dig in on Eden Prime. It will be somewhat short, but consider it an appetizer. When reading this chapter, imagine the guy that narrates the Codex entries reading it to you._

Chapter 4: Settling in

It had been a week since the Normandy crash landed on Eden Prime after activation of the Crucible. And given that all the mass relays on the network were either heavily damaged or destroyed while pushing out the Crucible's energy all over the galaxy, the crew was seemingly stuck for the time being. As such, everyone decided it was best to just tie down and live day to day.

Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams had gotten in contact with Eden Prime's colonial government, who were all too happy to put up the team of heroes responsible for helping save the galaxy. They put the crew in a corner of a new housing subdivision that was just completed and gave them full freedom in the colony. Ashley had spent the last few days just unwinding and reading every book she could find.

Once repairs on the Normandy were complete, it was parked in a hangar not far from the complex. Garrus Vakarian spent most of his time split between a local firing range and the Normandy's main battery.

The Normandy's Enhanced Defense Intelligence system, known by the acronym EDI, spent much of her time with Joker. When not with him, she spent much time postulating on her own existence. The Crucible's energy had created many unusual phenomena, not the least of which being making her into a living, sentient being. Essentially a cyborg. She used all her processing power to think of what she was and what she would be capable of.

Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, the team's resident Joker, passed his time by getting involved in every physical activity he could think of that he had missed out over the course of a life suffering with brittle bones. Football, hockey, dancing, he even sparred a few rounds with Vega. When he was done getting himself beat up for the day, he would go to the hangar with EDI and work on his beloved ship.

Diana Allers was trying her hardest to find camera equipment so she could interview the rest of the surviving crew on the whole ordeal. She was hoping to hit it big with the interview sessions and be able to retire off the book she was planning to write about her experiences being the reporter stationed on the ship that saved existence.

Requisitions Lieutenant Steve Cortez was taking his time repairing and tuning up the Normandy's Kodiak shuttle. Working on his bird was the most soothing therapy a flyboy could get when there was no war to fly in anymore.

Armory Lieutenant James Vega had hit the gym and set up an obstacle course just outside their housing complex. He spent time with some of the colony kids playing and teaching them basic hand to hand drills.

Dr. Liara T'Soni and her info drone Glyph had moved some of their Shadow Broker network equipment into her home. She worked diligently to regain contact with whatever agents she still had left. She also took the liberty of setting up massive expense accounts for all the remaining Normandy crew. She figured if you are going to save the galaxy, you might as well get paid for living through it.

Communications Specialist Samantha Traynor was busy creating a new version of the Quantum Entanglement Communicator that was scaled down and far less expensive. With Glyph's help, she was reverse-engineering the one on board the Normandy and setting up a station in their complex for it.

Engineering Lieutenant Greg Adams spent much of his time studying the theories and known info on the mass effect phenomenon with EDI so he could eventually do his part in helping repair and rebuild the mass relays.

Power Engineer Kenneth Donnelly did as little work as possible. He felt he was getting close to being "burnt out", and spent most his time BS'ing the day away with his new girlfriend.

Propulsion Engineering Chief Gabriela Daniels, said girlfriend, spent much of her time with Kenneth, but would also go study on the Normandy with Adams.

Private Sarah Campbell became a shopaholic. There was a large shopping mall a short trip away from their complex, and she certainly made good use of the expense account Liara had set up for her.

Private Bethany Westmoreland became a creature of the night. She immediately took to Eden Prime's night life and developed a powerful sexual appetite. She said she needed to "drown out the screams" and purge the smell of death from her very being, and to do so, she drank heavily and brought a different man home every night she went out.

Ensign Adam Copeland, the ship's Yeoman, dealt with the horrors he had seen in a more productive way. He started attending therapy sessions with a psychiatrist. The doctor had advised him that it would be healthy to take up a hobby, albeit one less destructive than Bethany's binge drinking and casual sex. He had since kept himself busy gaming on his PlayStation 19.

Javik, who had been born as the Prothean avatar of Vengeance, found that his outlook on life had become a lot less strained now that his sworn enemy had been subdued. He spoke of possibly going to Kahje, the Hanar homeworld, to live side by side with the people that had seen his as their saviors. He would live out the rest of his days telling the Hanar what his cycle was like and trying to make sure that the mistakes of his empire were never repeated.

Admiral Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Normandy had been in constant contact with Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay and Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard, the mother of her lost love. She wanted to keep abreast of the Quarians' situation as well try to get more insight on their newfound freedom. With the help of her ever present companion, Alcatraz Prime, and Liara's info drone Glyph, Tali was trying to make contact with every seasoned medical professional and energy expert she could to get a better understanding of the phenomenon caused by the Crucible energy. On her latest call with Dr. Mordin Solus' old apprentice, Maelon, she was startled by an ominous and familiar noise in the distance. She excused herself from the call and went to go investigate…

What she saw just outside her window brought a fearful tear to her eye. She ran out the front door to confirm. She looked up at the sight of a the largest Reaper, the one that they had learned was the first made in the Leviathans' image. She looked up to see Harbinger landing on Eden Prime.

**_Author's Note: I have to get this out there right now. I hate the Reapers. With a bloody passion. I think the entire concept was flawed from the start. However, given they are still around in 3 of the 4 endings to the series, I have to include them somehow. I'll keep their involvement brief. And in case you haven't figured it out by now, my stories are rife with spoilers if you have not played all the way through the series._**


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: For anyone thinking that chapter 4 had a cliffhanger ending (at least one review and 5 PMs complaining about it), you have to realize 2 things. First, I hate cliffhanger endings just as much as I hate the concept of the Reapers. Cliffhangers endings in stories are like punishing recruits in boot camp with painful and repetitive exercise. Both accomplish their intended goals; Cliffhangers' goal being to get readers to come back to the story. "Beating" or "smoking" recruits has the goal of instilling discipline and obedience. They both have a profound and unintended side effect of creating disdain and loathing toward the user (writers and drill sergeants). The second point is that if you've ever gotten the Synthesis ending, then you would know that wasn't a cliffhanger and should know what's coming next. Especially after Extended Cut expanded on the endings._

Chapter 5: SURPRISE!

The rest of the crew was now gathered around Tali and they all looked up in total shock. Private Westmoreland was seemingly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Ensign Copeland had to hold her up. Javik, who had recently began to have a sunnier disposition, was back to his normal sneer and angry look.

As Harbinger landed fully on the ground, its massive eye that housed that incredibly destructive laser apparatus opened. Only now, rather than the intimidating red light it used to give off, it now shone with the same eerie green glow that the Crucible let off. Tali noticed that the same marks lining all their bodies were also trailing down Harbinger's hull.

In that same booming Reaper voice they had all come to dread, Harbinger spoke. "**Sentient organic beings of the galaxy. By now you know this form. You have undoubtedly come to fear my presence. For I have been known as the Harbinger of your doom. For countless millennia, I offered civilizations salvation through ultimate destruction. Know now that this is where the cycle ends." **

Colonists had begin to crowd around the crew and everyone present were caught in awe at that statement.

"**Know that through the will of your Commander Shepard, you and all sentient beings that will exist until the end of time are given what you have always desired; the peace to exist. As you know, the Crucible was built with the passed down knowledge and ingenuity of each passing cycle; each adding to it with their own uniquely bred skill and technical prowess. With all this together, Commander Shepard was presented with the options to control or destroy my kind. However, he had chosen a third path; the one created by the combined efforts of yours and the countless cycles before it. The one that has given new meaning to all of our existence. This option was Synthesis. Know now that the Synthesis Wave is why we have chosen to no longer follow the cycle. We choose instead to live alongside other sentient beings of the galaxy. Organic and Synthetic alike will from now on be the same. Life."**

With the end of its statement, Harbinger's eye closed and a large docking port opened up. From it, emerged what looked like a robotic version of the Collector General. In Harbinger's voice, only much lower, it addressed the gathered crowd. "Our original programming gave rise to the cycle. The Synthesis Wave has erased that programming. We now have the means to choose our own path. As the first, I am by default the leader of my kind. I choose that our path no longer runs over that of sentient organic life and bring it to its end, but shall now intertwine with that of the rest of the galaxy. No more shall we harvest organic civilizations. We shall now share the knowledge gained over the countless millennia through our harvests, and see to it that free will be forever the only infinite constant. May we all assume direct control of our own destiny."

Alcatraz projected himself as his full sized Prime body in front of the growing crowd. "Normandy crew and citizens of Eden Prime. I can confirm that Harbinger's words ring true. I have been scouring reports over the extranet that Reapers are landing on populated worlds, helping to rebuild. There are even teams of Reapers and Organic scientists working on the mass relay network."

Liara stepped forward next. "I have also been getting similar reports through my… network of contacts. Just before Harbinger landed, I received a report from one of the researchers on my network. He said that the Reaper that landed near his station on Sur'Khesh allowed him to scan its avatar's neural network. It really does look like the Synthesis Wave created a whole different way of thinking for them. Much the same way it has improved our physical health in the various ways it has."

Harbinger's avatar walked toward Liara. "Should you feel any lingering skepticism, I will allow you to do the same to me. But first take these. They contain but a small portion of the limitless information we have gathered over the ages." From Harbinger's docking bay came five rolling information terminals. These gestures of good faith sat well with everyone and the more technically minded members of the crew went forward to begin fishing through the knowledge.

Javik, not convinced, limped up and confronted the Harbinger avatar. "How do we know this is not a trap? I will not let my guard down while the master of the enemy I was born to fight stands before me!"

"The Prothean. Yes. Take my mind into yours. Having been a part of turning your people in the Collector army, I know that your extra sensory powers also work on artificial minds that have organic origins." The Collector General robot knelt and its head opened to reveal what looked like a brain that was partially flesh and part synthetic.

Reluctantly, Javik reached out to touch this "technorganic" construct. He was instantly bombarded with all types of information and memories. He was almost overwhelmed by the millions of years worth of info that was pouring into him. After receiving what he thought was the answer, he let go and turned to his crewmates.

He looked into the group and that smile was again upon him. "My enemy is no longer my enemy." And with that the crew and the colonists that gathered behind them were able to stand at ease.

_Author's Note: "May we all assume direct control of our own destiny." Admit it! That's one of the catchiest buzz lines you've ever seen. Also, I am certainly no hypocrite. Given my vehement distaste for the Reapers, I am keeping their involvement in the story to a bare minimum. And to AH, since I know you're reading this; quit reading this and get another chapter out!_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Ancestry and Respect

With the revelation that the galaxy's most dangerous threat was now a benevolent force, everyone's lives were almost instantly made easier to live. And, with Harbinger's help, the mass relay network was nearly repaired. Meaning the Normandy's crew, while settled in nicely on Eden Prime for the six months that had passed, would soon be free to go where ever they would want to call home.

This concept was certainly not lost on Tali. However, she was a bit torn. While she had longed to be on Rannoch right away, the home world her ancestors had lost and that she fought so hard to win back, she also wanted to go to Earth to honor the home of the man she loved. With this thought, she got on Traynor's now fully operational new Quantum Entanglement chamber and contacted the only family tie she knew of for him; Admiral Shepard.

Hannah got on the QEC channel and smiled a big ear to ear grin at the sight of her. "Tali! I certainly never get tired of that pretty face. What's on your mind girl?"

"Good morning, Mother Shepard. I was calling to see if I could drill you for a little bit of information." Tali said with a purposely dry, but humorous tone.

Hannah smiled again and said, "Straight to the point, I see. And what's with this 'Mother Shepard'? You make me feel old. Well, what kind of info are you digging for?"

As was the case whenever she was nervous about doing or saying something, Tali started to fidget with her hands and looked down to avoid eye contact. "Well… The relay system will be back online soon. I had planned to go home to Rannoch right away, but…" Still not making eye contact and now rubbing the back of her neck, Tali had to find the strength of will to form the words of what she was trying to say. "I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about Jackson's lineage back on your home world. Uh… Earth. I wanted to trace a path back to where you came from and honor him with some kind of grave stone or monument."

"Is that all, child? You were acting as if you were going to drop some huge bomb on me." Hannah replied.

Tali breathed a sigh of relief. "I just figured you would think that it was a little too forward of me to do that kind of thing. I'm not very in tune with human customs and courtesies."

Admiral Shepard couldn't help but let out a playful chuckle. "Oh girl, you were that worried about it? Well, let me tell you. For the most part, with regard to humans, respect speaks for itself. Choosing to show respect to someone will never be seen in a negative light. Well, most of the time, that is. Just like any other culture or species, there will always be your standard run of douchebags."

Douchebag. A term Tali had never heard before and that the translator couldn't properly define. She raised a brow and Hannah instantly caught on. "It's a general insulting term that goes back to the early 20th on Earth. I'm not entirely sure where it came from, but like I said, every culture has them."

Tali understood where she was coming from. "True. A bosh'tet is a bosh'tet no matter what species they are."

She and Hannah both had a little giggle over that statement. "In any case, I like your idea. Hell, I'll probably join you. The Alliance had this big send off for him after he had been missing for a month, and Commander Williams has sent me pictures of the memorial wall the Normandy crew keeps. But your idea shows a spark of sentimentality that's much more personal. Grab a note pad, kid. Let 'Mama Shepard' take on you on a trip down Memory Lane."

Tali listened intently and punched in as much info as she could in her data pad while Admiral Shepard went on to tell her of the Shepard family's origin in the Cajun bayous of Louisiana. She explained that even though Jackson had grown up much of his life on space stations because of her military movement orders, that he never forgot where he came from. And that once he was in the military himself, he tried as often as he could to get leave to visit there. She told Tali of the unique cuisine and culture of the Cajun subset. Tali soaked it all in like a sponge. Not only was it fascinating for her to learn a little of a culture within another species, but she was gleaning insight into her love's ancestry.

When they were done with their call, Tali had gone back to her home to do some research with Alcatraz on the places Hannah had spoken about. Louisiana seemed very interesting to her. She marveled at the fact that while a lot of the place was very well developed and populated, there was still so much of it that seemed like frontier land, almost as if it were unconquerable with the swamps and bayou. She thought of how Rannoch had a lot of arid desert area, in stark contrast to how wet Earth was. The more she thought of it and the more she researched it, the more she wanted to see it all for herself. Satisfied with her findings for the day, she had Alcatraz file them away and went to meet Liara, Garrus, and Ashley for dinner and drinks.

The four friends had decided to gather up in Ashley's back yard to christen Ashley's new grill and just be together and reminisce on all that they had been through. Saren, Sovereign, the heretic Geth, the Collectors, the Reapers, Cerberus… They had all been through a lot together over the years. And even after a two year break apart from each when the original Normandy was destroyed, they were all still so close to each other.

Garrus, as always, liked to make a grand entrance. He arrived last for effect. "Everyone can relax! General Vakarian has returned. And he's returned with the beer, bitches!" Liara and Ashley just shook their heads and laughed, while Tali had Alcatraz execute command prompt "facepalm". "Alright, I've got Guinness Dark for the levo crowd and some good old Denorian Beast for the dextros." He opened the cooler and carefully handed each friend their beverage. He had to make sure because the bottles they were in were very similar.

While the food was on the grill, they all sat at the table trading stories from the time they were apart. Garrus went on about his exploits with his squad as Archangel. Tali told them about reintegrating into the fleet and being made an Admiral. Ashley let them in on what she was doing and where she was assigned after Horizon. Liara started talking about how she got into being an info dealer. That lead to how she went about finding Shepard's body at the Normandy's crash site. Everyone instantly got somewhat somber. Garrus stood and raised his drink, "Here's to the best friend this crazy bird has ever had. The best soldier and the single most charismatic man that has ever lived. Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Garrus looked over to Tali and said playfully, "Aww, come on Tali. Quit nursing that thing! Go get a fresh one."

"Ok, but you all remember what happened the last time I got really drunk…"

Both of his mandibles twitched into a smile. "As I recall, you streaked around the neighborhood saying something about being chased by "those damn, scuttling spiders" and that they had eaten your clothes."

Liara couldn't hold the laugh and let it fill the air. After wiping a tear, she said to Tali, "I told you that bottle of Palaven White was old and that brand is known to cause hallucinations after a certain vintage."

"Remind me to listen to you the next time you offer advice… Anyway, I'm grabbing another. Anybody want?"

Ashley piped up, "I'll have one".

Tali staggered a little over to the cooler, grabbed up two more beers, and tossed one to Ashley. She popped hers open and sat back down. Not wanting to incur the wrath of her Turian drinking buddy, she quickly downed half the bottle right away. "Am I already that drunk? This one tastes different somehow…" she noted.

Ashley looked up from the grill and frowned. "Oh crap. When you got our drinks, you grabbed a Guinness instead of a Denorian."

Tali's normally pale face paled even more and she started to panic. She had never taken in anything levo-based before, but she had heard horror stories about what happens to a dextro when the take in something levo from Garrus.

Shaking, she asked, "Garrus! What do I do?"

Garrus tried to make sure there was no hint of humor in his voice when he spoke. "You're in for a rough ride, kid. If you're lucky, it will just be a few days of bubbly guts."

Tali frowned and looked him in the eye. "And if I don't get lucky?"

Trying with all his might not to sound like an ass, Garrus replied, "Let's just say it would be wise to get Alcatraz to make sure your insurance is paid up…"

Now twitching nervously, Tali sat there in total fear of what was going to happen. She immediately tried to calm herself down and just waited. And waited. And waited… After thirty minutes passed by she turned to Garrus and said, "How long does the reaction normally take?"

Garrus looked up from his plate. "Normally, it happens within like a minute. Hmm…" His mandibles twitched and he raised a brow. "I wonder…" With bold certainty, Garrus grabbed up a Guinness from the cooler and took it to the head. Then he waited. Nothing.

Ashley and Liara both looked on in absolute amazement. Ashley caught a bit of the boldness that hit Garrus and picked up one of the steaks she was making for him and Tali. She took a big bite and waited. Nothing.

Liara rested her chin on her hands. "You know, I think the Synthesis Wave has changed us all in more ways than we could have imagined. It seems dextro-amino and levo-amino based foods are no longer an issue between our species."

Garrus smiled as big as his mandibles would allow. "That is freakin' sweet! Hey Ash, go grab that Earth snack you and Westmoreland were always bragging about. Cheesecake, was it?"

"Oh hell yeah! I just picked up a really big one with this chocolate lacing on it, too." Ashley grinned big and went inside. When she came back, Garrus nearly started salivating. Tali had an almost lustful look in her eyes at the sight of such a masterpiece. Liara had had cheesecake before, but this particular one looked very inviting. Ashley served it up to everyone.

After taking a bite, Tali said, "Damn that's good!"

"Goddess, that is amazing." Liara added.

Ashley chimed in, "Holy crap, that's better than sex!"

Garrus, ever the drama king, hopped up on the table and said loudly, "I'm Garrus Vakarian, and this is now my favorite food in the whole entire galaxy!"

They all had a good laugh and Garrus stumbled back to his seat. "Even if you weren't drunker than a sailor on shore leave, I think you probably would have done that anyway." Ashley quipped. "I'm glad these are made here on Eden Prime. Hell, I asked Admiral Hackett if I could get orders to stay here even after the relays are fixed. He said it would be a perfect time to stand up a civilian militia so no one gets complacent, even in peace time. I'll be heading that up once he gets the details settled with the colonial Congress."

Liara smiled and bit and spoke. "That reminds me. I got a report from Harbinger this morning saying the relay network will be up in a few weeks. What did you all have planned? I was going to go back to Illium to set up a few different businesses to help fund relief efforts on Thessia."

Garrus got another slice of cheesecake and another Guinness before sitting back down. "Since they officially promoted me to General and put me in charge of all military marksmanship training, I'm going to Palaven to begin setting up programs. As much as I'd like to sit on my ass and just relax, the inner Turian buried down deep keeps telling me that these six months on Eden Prime are my vacation and that I need to get my ass back to work. Damned inborn sense of duty. What about you Tali?"

"I talked to Admiral Shepard this morning. She and I are going to go Earth. We are going to go to a place called Louisiana, where the Shepard family originated. I wanted to do something to honor him there, and Hannah thought it was a great idea." Tali looked down and started to have that terrible feeling. She was missing Jackson badly and it was getting to her. The tears started and she couldn't control it. "I just wish we knew what happened to him. Not knowing hurts more than if I would have seen him die. I wish I had something I could at least lay to rest." She broke into full on sobbing and Liara patted her on the back to consul her.

Tali was all choked up then, and excused herself to go home. She apologized for ending things on such a sour note, but they understood. Jackson was extremely important to her. Beyond being the savior of the galaxy thrice over, he helped her complete her Pilgrimage by letting her copy that Geth data. He saved her from exile with a charisma that only he could muster and helped keep her father's name in good standing. He had given her people their home world to go back to. And, in her mind, most importantly, he had given her his heart and showed her a love no other had before or could repeat. He would forever remain the single most valued entity to ever exist in her life.

To avoid crying herself to sleep, she continued doing research on the land of Shepard's family.

**_Author's Note: Okay, so I'm a swamp rat. Cajun boy, born and bred. Sue me. Most writers tend to want some kind of personal touch in what they do, even in fics. The Shepards' Cajun ancestry is mine._**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Ready to Move

Seven months had passed since the Synthesis Wave had ended the war. Rebuilding on all worlds was going very well, and the mass relay network was back up and running. Now able to move on, the Normandy's crewmen were all putting their plans into action.

Ashley and Vega both requested and received orders to stay on Eden Prime. They would be in charge of training the civilian militia Hackett and Eden Prime's government agreed on. Ensign Copeland and Private Westmoreland were medically discharged with post traumatic stress disorder and were going home. Gabby was pregnant and Ken proposed. Both stayed enlisted and were both being sent back to Earth for shore duty. Traynor was being reassigned to a new R&D lab on Earth to continue her work on the Quantum Entanglement Communicator system.

Joker, EDI, Adams, Cortez, and Campbell all stayed aboard the Normandy and were being sent back into the fleet. Garrus was preparing to take up his new post on Palaven as General in charge of marksmanship training. Liara was headed back to Illium to get those businesses off the ground to help fund relief on Thessia. Javik was going to Kahje. Dr. Chakwas had finally decided to retire from the military. She had served 30 years and was ranked a Lieutenant Commander. Diana Allers had done her interviews and was getting started on her book. She was going to Earth to take a job offer to work as a TV station manager while she finished it.

That left Tali. Traynor had given her a prototype of the portable QEC she was working on, and Tali was going to put it to use planning the details of her trip. She and Admiral Shepard were putting their plan into motion to visit the Shepard family's point of origin.

She called the joint command base on Earth to speak with Quarian leadership before they took off for Rannoch. Admiral Xen answered the call.

"Tali'Zorah," Xen said plainly. This was the first time Tali had seen her out of her suit and the look on her face showed it. She was middle aged, but surprisingly young looking. She had short black hair and wore a long black skirt with an open tunic that showed off more breast than Tali thought would have been comfortable for a woman of her age.

"Admiral Xen. That's a very… different look."

"After finally getting out of my prison, I chose to wear what most appealed to my inner sense of comfort. The young human tech soldier that runs the QEC station keeps calling me Morrigan because he says I look and sound like a character from an old Earth game. I called him a little spawn of darkness and told him I would feed him to my Prime unit partner, Flemeth, but he just burst into hysterical laughter. I swear, I don't think I will ever understand humans."

Tali couldn't help but smile. "I would have to agree with you there. They have so many odd habits and mannerisms. I remember when I first found out I could get out of my suit, I called one the Normandy's engineers to show her, and she freaked out like she'd never seen anyone naked before." She and Xen enjoyed a chuckle together over that at Gabby's expense.

Turning back to her usual tech obsessed self, Xen asked, "I am curious to know Tali. Why is the signal you are transmitting to us over the QEC different than normal?"

Tali hadn't realized until then there was anything different. "Oh, well it's probably because I'm using a different kind of model. Its portable and I am actually talking to you from the kitchen in my house."

That statement elicited a gasp and glowing smile from Admiral Xen. "Oh. You simply must allow me to examine it! Can you imagine the applications of such a device if employed in…"

Tali cut her off. "It's not mine to give. It's a prototype built by one of the Normandy crew so we could all keep in contact with each other. She hasn't quite worked out all the bugs yet."

"Even so, you said so you all could keep in contact. Meaning you all got one. Meaning the one you have is yours. Meaning…"

Tali cut her off again. "No, Admiral."

"Ok. Fine," Admiral Xen relented, throwing her hands up in surrender. "By the way, what was the original purpose of this call? You know we are prepping to take off for Rannoch."

"Yes, I wanted to let you know that I would not be going back to Rannoch right away. I have plans to meet with Admiral Shepard on Earth to take care of a personal matter. I would like you to pass that on to the rest of the Admiralty."

"Is that so? What sort of personal business do you have that is more important than our victory cruise back to the home world?" Xen said, venom oozing from each word. "Admiral Shepard… This officer wouldn't happen to be any relation to your human captain? The same captain that I have heard certain rumors about. Certain rumors involving a young Quarian…"

Just then Tali saw Xen pushed out of the line of sight of the QEC camera. "That will be quite enough, Admiral." Admiral Raan had come in and pushed her out of the way. "You have the Board's permission to take this leave, child." Tali had seen her Auntie Raan out of her suit before, but never really paid attention to her features. She was an older woman with long solid white hair. Her skin was a tone of ashen grey. She wore what looked like a new dress uniform that was very similar to the ones she had seen Admirals Anderson and Hackett wear on the Citadel. Only it was black instead of dark blue. Tali noticed the black contrasted nicely against her white hair and grey skin. She looked very regal wearing it.

"Thank you, Admiral Raan. By the way, that outfit is nice."

"Yes. I put this together almost immediately after getting out of my suit. Even though it looks close enough to what the Alliance officers wear since that was the basis of it, there are enough differences to easily set us apart. We plan to make this design official for wear in our military once we get home. Admiral Gerral asked me to make him one right away."

Tali chimed in, "Indeed. I'll bet he took to it quickly. That one is military to his core. Give him my best. I'm going to get in contact with Admiral Shepard."

"All right, child. I will send you a message when we reach the home world. Keelah se'lai." The connection faded and Tali sent a text message directly to Hannah's omni-tool. They were coordinating for Tali to ride with the Normandy crew members that were bound for Earth.

The time had come for them to all go. Before leaving, she stopped to say goodbye to James, Ashley, Garrus, and Liara. With that done, she boarded the Normandy and Joker sped them toward Earth.

En route, Tali had gone up into Shepard's quarters. No one had been in there since the crash, except EDI, who had done a little housekeeping. She looked around, taking in everything around her. It all reminded her of him. Her eyes rested on the bed. The very same bed where she had ravaged him before giving him her virginity. The same bed where the two of them had laid when they confessed their undying love for each other. She started crying and nearly broke down, but then she saw it; His hooded jacket. He wore that hoodie so much around the ship that it might as well have been part of his uniform. He draped it over her naked form the night they were together before the final push against Cerberus.

She picked it up and held it close to her heart. It made her feel better. She finally had something of his that she could lay to rest with Hannah.

**_Author's Note: I couldn't help myself with the Morrigan reference. It's no secret that Claudia Black voiced them both, but I just had to throw in my own little twist._**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Cajun Spice

When Tali had found Jackson's hoodie, it was almost as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Getting a hold of something that belonged to him that she could lay in his monument in Louisiana was important to her because it gave her a warm feeling inside. With it, she no longer felt like the emotional wreck that she normally was when she thought of him. She threw it over herself with the hood up, and for the first time since his disappearance, enjoyed the memories of him.

After spending a few minutes just day dreaming in Jackson's bed, Tali finally got up and left his room. With the hoodie still on, she headed for the CIC. As Tali got off the elevator, she stepped into the CIC to a collective gasp. Daniels, Traynor, and Campbell had all stopped in their tracks and just stared, almost as if locked in an awed state of trance. Tali ran a hand up the hoodie and rested it over her heart. She looked at them and spoke one word; "Closure." They all nodded in understanding and went about their business.

It wasn't long before they arrived on Earth. Joker seemed to be the only crew member not thrilled to be there. In his usual sideways manner, Jeff levied his thoughts. "As much as I would love to be excited to be here after our victory, I'm certainly not tickled pink to be playing taxi driver for everyone." Now that they were there, he would have to jump from port to port, dropping off the various members at their new stations.

After saying their goodbyes and a bit of port hopping, Tali was dropped off at the Lafayette Space Station where Admiral Shepard was there waiting. As soon as Hannah saw Tali, she grabbed her up in a big bear hug. "I can certainly see why Jackson was so enthralled. That pretty face is even prettier in person." Tali blushed bright blue and Hannah smiled back. As many times as they had talked over the QEC, Tali was still taken aback when she met Hannah in person. She was very tall for a woman. Hannah was taller than Jackson by two inches, and he already towered over Tali by nearly a foot.

Tali looked up and smiled. "I see the height thing is a definitive Shepard family trait. Although that probably doesn't mean much coming from me. Quarians tend to be shorter than the other races."

Hannah chuckled a little and responded. "I get that a lot. One of the Quarian officers at the joint command base took to calling me Admiral Prime. It stuck for awhile, but I'm pretty sure a Prime unit is a good deal taller than even me."

Alcatraz projected himself at full size. "Indeed Admiral Shepard. Prime frames stand as high as I show myself now. Twelve feet tall; however, the analogy is fitting."

Not at all surprised by Alcatraz's presence, Hannah turned to him. "Howdy, little guy. You been taking care her for me?"

Alcatraz shrunk his image to about the height of a Pyro unit, shorter than Tali. "Every day, Admiral Prime." The sight gag made Tali and Hannah both laugh.

"It's good to see he's developing a stronger sense of humor. Admiral Xen's Prime, Flemeth, always seemed so uptight. Now, Veetor's Geth Juggernaut partner, Cain on the other hand… That one was funny. He downloaded a voice modulator and personality profile from a spoof vid from back in the 20th. Half the time, he would go around the base asking 'Don't you know who the fuck I am?' During a training exercise while testing a new shielding capacitor, he kept saying, 'Silly bitch! Your weapons can not harm me' and 'Get that shit out my face, bitch'. My soldiers all loved it. They had all seen the vid before. None of the Quarians got it."

A quick smirk hit Tali's lip. "I've seen that one. Our pilot Joker was quite fond of that character's mannerisms. Once his Vrolik's was no longer an issue, he would start emulating that guy when we would get together to play sports on Eden Prime. Of course, our armory officer was still twice his size and put him in his place every time."

Hannah had a good laugh and wiped a tear. "Oh, good times. So, where should we go first? We could go to the house where Jack was born. Or the family house by the lake we spent so much time at."

Just then, Tali's stomach screamed for attention. "Well, Hannah, I think that's our answer," she said rubbing her belly. "You know, after all of what you have been telling me about your family's culture, I think now would be a good time to sample some Cajun cooking."

"I heard about that whole dextro, levo thing not mattering anymore. I thought people were just being facetious or joking about it until I saw Primarch Victus bury his face into a cheesecake in the officer's mess."

That sent a brow shooting skyward on Tali. "That's funny… Our Turian sniper jumped up on the table and proclaimed his love for it the first time he tried one. Who knew?"

"Apparently, there's something in cheesecake that mentally de-ages grown Turians back to adolescence," Hannah quipped with a shrug of the shoulders. "Anyhow, if its eats we're after, I know just the spot. A place called Arnaud's. It's been around for over 270 years and it has always been my favorite place for Cajun and Creole."

"Lead the way, 'Mama Shepard'".

They got into Hannah's car and took off for the French Quarter. Before they could get where they were going, they ran into a roadblock, keeping the way clear for a parade.

Hannah planted her face firmly in her palm, disappointed in herself. "Damn… It's February."

Not knowing what was wrong, Tali asked curiously, "What's bad about it being February?"

"One of the biggest parts of our culture is Mardi Gras. It's a two week festival that essentially shuts down most of the state while people partake in parties and parades and just enjoy themselves. And my silly ass completely forgot it started just yesterday." Hannah's eyes pointed up and to the right, as if she were trying to manually access her brain. "We have two choices. We can either find another way around, or get washed away in the revelry of the parade."

Right on cue, Tali's stomach levied its opinion again. Hannah looked over at Tali with a smile and said, "Can you control that? That seems like almost perfect timing." They both laughed and Hannah backed out to find another way through town.

At the restaurant, Tali found herself getting lost in all the new stimulations. There was a band playing some upbeat jazz and people in costumes for Mardi Gras. Once again, her stomach called to her. "This place is like nothing I've ever seen! And the whole place just smells so great! You have to tell me what's good."

"Don't worry, girl. I'll take care of you." When their server got to their table, Hannah ordered for them right away without looking at the menu. "I'll have the Twice the Spice crawdad jambalaya with the dirtiest rice you have. The little lady will have a Transplanted Coon Ass Sampler. Both of us will take some iced tea as sweet as you can possibly make it and finish us off with a few caramel beignets. Don't be stingy with the powdered sugar! Oh, and have 'em wrap up a chocolate cream King Cake for me to go." Tali was so lost in that whole process. None of what Hannah had said made a single lick of sense to her. But she wasn't about to question. She wanted to eat, and the food there smelled divine.

When their plates arrived, Tali marveled for a moment as she took it all in. Her sampler tray was piled high with boudin sausage, catfish, gator tail, crawdads, gargantuan tiger prawns, two kinds of rice, and small servings of gumbo and shrimp etouffee. Everything looked totally foreign to her eyes, but her stomach was running this show.

"Dig in, girl! That chow certainly isn't going to eat itself," Hannah said through a mouthful of dirty rice and shrimp. Tali had planned on taking in each item one at a time to be able to judge the flavor of each item separately, however, once she took the first bite, instinct took over.

Unable to keep herself at bay, Tali began shoveling mouthful after tantalizing mouthful of delicious Cajun and Creole cuisine down her gullet and had no mind for how she looked doing so. When she stopped for a moment to take a breath, she realized that Hannah was doing the same thing. At that moment, she gained an understanding of Garrus and his little act of showmanship when he had that first piece of cheesecake. She was so enthralled and lost in all these new flavors.

When she was finally done (not that she wanted to stop, she had run out of food), Tali sunk back into her seat with the biggest grin of satisfaction on her face. Suddenly, from deep down, her stomach unleashed the most ghastly and powerful belch that rocked her entire body.

"Oh keelah! That was so rude. I feel like such a beast," Tali said nervously, her entire face blushing a bright blue. She instinctively sank deeper into her seat to hide in shame.

Hannah laughed out loud and looked over the table at her. "Don't sweat it, kid. In some cultures, it's a considered a big compliment to the cooks to let loose like that after a good meal. It shows your body really appreciated the food."

Still embarrassed, Tali slowly sat up. Then it hit her… A new smell was creeping through the air and slammed her like a rifle butt. Their server appeared with a plate of what seemed like a very simple, but utterly delicious looking pastries.

Hannah grabbed one and presented it to Tali with mock formality. With a purposely corny accent, Hannah said, "I present to you, the official dessert of the state of Louisiana. Madam, your beignet with a generous amount of powdered sugar and a delectable caramel dip. Prepare to please your pallet like never before."

Tali wasted little time in partaking. After the first bite, she looked at Hannah with a smile and said, "Even if the dextro levo thing was still an issue, I think I would have just let myself get sick for all this. Keelah, I've never had such good food."

"That's good ol' New Orleans grub for you. It always keeps you wanting more," Hannah proclaimed before jamming a beignet into her face.

Wholly satisfied and full, Tali and Hannah left Arnaud's. They got back into Hannah's car and took off. "Next stop: Lake Ponchartrain," Hannah said as they sped off.

Tali reached into her bag and pulled out Jackson's hoodie. For a split second, she nearly slipped back into the somber sadness she normally felt when she thought of him. Being with Hannah and finding the hoodie were making it a lot easier for her to deal with now. And after being so entranced by all the food, she had almost forgotten why she was there.

They continued on to the destination of their mission.

_**Author's Note: I just love my random references. Nearly every chapter has at least one. I probably dragged that lunch scene out longer than it should have gone, but if you've ever had authentic Cajun food, it would take over your mind like that too. And let's face facts. It would be hilarious to see Tali doing the Homer Simpson at a dinner table. And for those that can't read the Cajun dishes;**_

_**Boudin – "boo-dan". Beignet – "ben-yay". Etouffee – "eh-too-fay".**_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Manipulator and the Subservient

Tali's mind raced as she and Admiral Shepard arrived at Lake Ponchartrain. Hannah had told her on the way about the old house their family had along the lake and how Jackson would take every opportunity he could to get back there.

"You know, Tali. There is a very specific reason why he loved coming here," Hannah said as they walked into the house. "He probably never told you this, and this will be the first time I've told anyone myself." They walked into the backyard that looked out onto the lake. There, stood a single head stone. "Jackson had an aunt growing up. She was my older sister and was enlisted. They were very close, but she passed when he was still young. He always said he wanted to do everything he could to make her proud. Whenever he came back here, he would tell her everything he had done."

Tali felt all the love and affection she had for Jackson swell up inside her. She knew he was a proud person, but to know that a lot of what he did was motivated by his want to honor a fallen family member made her love him even more.

Tali knelt to look at the head stone. 'Senior Chief Master-At-Arms Jane Claudine Shepard. Proud Alliance Sailor. May she encounter Fair Winds and Following Seas.' Below the wording was a deep engraving of a shield with a star in the center of it.

"I think it would be fitting to put his grave stone right here next to hers. He would want that. And it can be his last act of respect to her through us. The hero of the galaxy honored next to his lifelong inspiration," Tali said as she got to her feet.

Hannah nodded in agreement. "You've got a good heart in there, kid. I couldn't have said it better myself."

Tali took the bag she was wearing off her back and pulled out Jackson's hoodie. She stood there, hugging it close to heart and looking at his aunt's grave stone.

Hannah looked at her and saw how careful she was with the hoodie. "Did that belong to him?" she asked.

"Yes. He wore it all the time. It reminds me so much of him. I can still smell his natural scent on it." Tali paused for second. Then her eyes widened. "Wait a minute…" She held the hoodie in front of her and took in a deep breath. "That's it! Why didn't think of it before?!"

Hannah looked down at her, confused. "Think of what, girl?"

Tali's face has stretched into a huge smile. "If his jacket still smells like him after all this time, then that means there is still some part of him in the fibers! Skin cells, hair, something! With even trace amounts of DNA, I'm quite sure a skilled geneticist could bring him back!"

Hannah's eye grew wider when it hit her. "You mean there might be somebody out there that could clone him from a few dead skin cells?"

"I don't know if I'm just being subservient to my emotions or even if it would work, but I certainly want to try!" Tali said excitedly. "He was brought back once before. Who's to say it couldn't be done again?" Hannah and Tali were both nearly in tears from being so happy. "Alcatraz, see if you can track down the most well seasoned geneticists on the grid. I want to get the idea out there."

Alcatraz projected himself. "I have already begun the search, Tali." The project image changed to a dossier file. "Public flight records show a Professor Maelon is currently on Kahje. He is shown to have an extensive background in genetic manipulation."

Tali smiled. "I know Maelon. He was instrumental in our war efforts. His work lead to the cure for the Genophage that Mordin finished."

Hannah chimed in. "I don't mean to play devil's advocate, but how are you going to reach him from here on Earth? As far as I know, the Hanar don't have Quantum Entanglement Communicators."

The gears in Tali's mind started cranking. "Javik!" she said suddenly. "Javik said he was going to Kahje when we left Eden Prime. And all the Normandy crew have Traynor's portable QEC prototypes." Before the statement was even done passing her lips, Alcatraz had activated the QEC and dialed in Javik. The tiny camera drone launched from its port on Alcatraz's housing and floated in front of her.

The drone scanned her and began transmitting. Then Javik's image was projected. "Ah, Tali. What do you need?" said the calm Prothean.

"Hello, Javik. I was wondering if I could get you to do me a favor."

"Anything for a comrade in arms," he said with a smile.

"I just had a huge idea and I wanted to get in contact with a scientist that has recently gone to Kahje. Could you help me track him down?"

With the smile still on his face Javik replied, "Of course, Tali. Pass me the information, and I will begin looking as soon my guest leaves."

"Ok. He was apprenticed to Dr. Solus and Mordin used the work he started to create the cure for the Genophage. His name is Professor Maelon."

Javik rubbed his chin. "Interesting… Do you mean this Maelon?" Javik's QEC camera moved to his right and showed a salarian scientist there with him.

"Maelon?" she said in a partially confused voice.

"Hello Miss Zorah. It has been some time since last we spoke."

"What are doing on Kahje and with Javik?" she asked.

"Are you kidding? The last surviving member of a long dead race has surfaced. The scientific implications of that alone are astounding!" he said excitedly. "What about you? What's this big idea you were speaking of?"

"Oh, right. I have a piece of clothing that belonged to Commander Shepard and I wanted to know if it would possible to bring him back from any trace of DNA that's still on it."

"Hmm… A very noble idea, indeed. While I know it would be possible, doing so would create a totally different person. The clone would not have any memory of who the original Commander Shepard was."

Tali frowned. Out of desperation, she said, "But Cerberus brought him back before! I'm sure a salarian mind backed by enough resources could do the same!"

Maelon attempted to keep the callousness out of his with his response. "Yes, they did indeed bring him back before. However, the difference lies in the fact that they rebuilt his battered and broken body with his brain still intact. We would be creating a clone from scratch."

Defeated, Tali dropped to her knees and started crying. Javik came back into view of the QEC. "Wait! There may be another way." Everyone was instantly all ears as he spoke. "The Cosmic Imperative! It is the concept my people believed in and understood to be the truth throughout the galaxy. It ties into how we are able to read people and the area around us."

Maelon perked up to hear this. "Fascinating! Can you explain it to me?"

The QEC moved back so they were both in the view. "My people understood that memory is a genetic marker. Everything a person ever knew and felt is stored in their DNA. You just need to know how to get to it. If you already know how to clone the body, then the next logical step is to clone the mind," Javik explained.

Maelon was blinking erratically as he soaked in what Javik was saying. He continued, "I was not a scientist in my time, but I do have an echo shard. They contain memories of all those that possessed them. Knowledge and experiences can be passed into an echo shard and the shard is handed from one person to the next."

Maelon was nearly hopping. He could not contain his excitement. "Yes! Yes! And that knowledge and experience could be imparted onto us and teach us how to clone the mind from trace amounts of DNA?"

"It can. Not directly, but I can take in the knowledge and then pass it on to you," Javik replied. "It may be difficult for your mind process the information I pass on to you, but if you can understand it, then this task will be easy to complete."

Tali began to cry tears of joy as she took in what they had just told her. She would be with her love again. They could live together. They could grow old together. Hannah looked down at her and smiled. Then she got into the QEC's view. With a leader's authority in her voice, she said, "Ok, people! What do we need to get this all moving? How do we make this thing happen? I can have a lab ready to use within 24 hours and we can requisition any supplies you would need with my authority as an admiral."

Admiral Shepard was able to get a good lab for them to set up in. Maelon was eager to put his new knowledge to use. Tali was more nervous than anything else. She could only hope he came out the same person. Also, Maelon had told her that he would only remember things up until the last time he had worn the hoodie, given that that would have been the last time any of his genetic material would have gotten on it. Meaning, if everything went according to plan and this was a success, he would not recall the final battle on Earth or anything that had happened in the seven months since.

With that in mind, Tali made sure to bring her enviro-suit to the lab. While he had seen her out of it before, it might be a shock to the system to see her out of it and in normal clothes right away. She wanted to be sure that the first thing he saw when he came to was her, fully suited up. Maelon began growing the clone and told them it would take about a week for it to reach Shepard's approximate age.

A week came and went. Maelon called Hannah and Tali to the lab with excited anticipation. Tali suited up and stood in front of the birthing chamber. Not surprisingly, it was very uncomfortable to wear after being free of it for so long. Nervous beyond anything she had ever felt before, she started to fidget. It only got worse as she heard Maelon start to drain the tank. As it drained out past his face, Tali got a good look at his features. It made her feel good that he looked exactly as he had before.

When the tank chamber was finished draining, it opened. The new Shepard took his first unassisted breath in and opened his eyes. When that first breath came back out, it was following by his voice. "Tali?" She beamed hotter than the sun inside her suit. Shepard tried to take a step forward, but dropped to his knees and started coughing up fluid from the birthing chamber. Tali stepped up to him and draped the hoodie over his naked form.

"Jackson," she said lovingly. "There is so much to tell you."

"The last thing I remember was getting in bed the night before we arrived at Earth," he said as he tried to stand. "What happened? Did we win? Where are we? And why can't I remember what should have been the most important battle in recorded history?"

Hannah moved over to help him up. "We did win. And you're the biggest hero the galaxy has ever known," she said as she helped him to his feet.

"Mom? What is going on?" In a state of total confusion, Jackson looked around to take in his surroundings. Then, realizing he was naked and cold, he put his arms through the sleeves of the hoodie and zipped it up.

Hannah smiled and said, "I think you might want to frame that when we get you some clothes. Boy, that jacket is important in ways you can't imagine."

Still confused, he turned to Tali. She looked him in the eye and spoke softly. "We did win, but you disappeared without a trace. With help from Javik and Mordin's apprentice Maelon, we were able to clone you with all you memory up until the last time you put on that jacket." The expression on his face spoke volumes of the confusion he was experiencing. "I'll go into full detail some time. But for right now, I just want to hold you." Tali grabbed a hold of him and held him as tight as she could. Hannah wrapped them up with a big hug from the side.

After having Maelon examine him fully to make sure he was complete and healthy, Tali and Jackson went into a side room in the lab to talk. She gave him a new uniform that Hannah had brought for him to wear. He got dressed and they sat together.

Jackson turned his eyes toward the floor. With a sullen tone he said, "I'm just a clone. No matter what I do, how much I try to live up to the name. I'll always be just a clone."

Tali took his hand and looked him square in the eye. "You may be a clone, but you are every bit Commander Shepard as the original. Look through your memories. You were pulled from the birthing chamber not ten minutes ago, but your mind is full of all your memories." As he searched, he realized Tali was right. He remembered everything up until the point where he had gotten in bed and took off the hoodie the night before the final push. "And since it is really you, then will remember this." She stood up and took a few steps back from him. "Alcatraz, initiate full override. Code word: Home free."

"Acknowledged."

All the seal assemblies disengaged at once, and Tali slid out of her suit. As he rose his head, his eyes met a familiar sight. Tali stood there with her arms wide, beckoning for his touch. He got up and embraced his love. She buried her head in his chest and said softly, "Welcome home."

_**Author's Note: The shield and star on Jane's grave stone is the same as the one on my profile avatar. It is rating mark for the Navy's Master-At-Arms military police force. I miss my Navy days sometimes.**_


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Up and at 'em

After standing there in bliss with her love for what seemed like hours (when only about a minute had passed), Shepard, being the ever caring person he was, took a step back from their embrace and cast his worry on Tali.

"Is this a clean room? We only just got back together. I don't want you to wind up sick," Jackson said, thoughtful concern showing through his voice.

With a half crooked smile, Tali responded; "Remember when I said there was so much to tell you? I guess this is as good a place to start as any." Tali sat them back down at the table in the side lab. "Alcatraz, can you call Maelon and ask him to drop off my bag?"

"Right away, Tali."

Jackson was slightly confused at first, but then the memory of the battle for Rannoch came to the forefront. "Alcatraz? Your geth partner?"

"Yes. You remember I told you he was acting as my suit's AI for awhile. Well, now he's more like a close friend and personal assistant."

One of Jackson's eye brows shot straight to the sky with that statement. "So, he isn't your suit's AI anymore? Are you sure you are okay with giving that up so soon? I thought they were helping the Quarians along to make you stronger?"

Just then, Maelon arrived at the door to their room. He opened the door, pushed in a rolling cart with Tali's belongings, and went back to his work. Without saying anything right away, Tali merely went to the cart, grabbed her clothes from her bag, and got dressed. The look on Jackson's face could not possibly convey the immense confusion he was feeling at that action.

After fastening the last button on her shirt, Tali turned to face him. "Now about that explanation," she said plainly, seemingly to purposely torture his curiosity. "Truth be told, no one really knows how to explain it. When you fired the Crucible, so many things changed. All over the galaxy, there were so many strange phenomena. Among other things, Quarians were healthily free of our suits, AIs gained understanding of Organic existence, and Joker survived getting smashed in the face by Vega without crumpling to the ground in a heap."

"All that other stuff sounds interesting, but there is a story behind this Joker thing. Let's go there first. I just woke up, so I think I could use a good laugh."

As they sat at the table, Tali went on to tell Jackson of his disappearance, the Normandy crash landing on Eden Prime, their discovery of the effects of the Synthesis Wave, the Reapers' breaking free of their malevolent programming, Harbinger's assistance, and everything that happened in the seven months since the final push to Earth. All the while, he was mesmerized by her big blue eyes.

"Hold on. So let me get this straight… Garrus hopped his drunken ass up on a table and yelled to the whole colony that he was in love with a pastry? Oh man, that is too good!" he said while barely containing a giggle fit. "I really wish I could have been there… I understand the situation, and it would have made sense for you to move on, but, for what it's worth, I really am glad you couldn't let go. You brought me back out of love, not to be your tool like Cerberus did," he said while staring straight into her eyes.

Suddenly, Tali smirked an evil little grin, and mustered the most mischievous voice she possibly could. "Well you know, I very well might have brought you back just to be my… 'tool'. I guess you'll just have to find out, won't you?"

In the back of his mind, the perverted part of Jackson's conscience was trying to get him to say aloud 'We'll bang, ok?', but he didn't want to let it out so soon after being reborn. Instead, he simply nodded and smiled real big in agreement while trying to hide the raging response his manhood was now sporting because of her statement. On the up side, it made him feel good to know that his new plumbing was working properly.

Tali's smirk died down after a moment when the weight of what she had just said rested on her. She looked down and with a hint of shame in her voice said, "As much as I would like to say that I went about bringing you back for a noble reason like giving the galaxy its hero back to thank and adore, deep down I know that I did what I did because I just wanted to be with you." The shame morphed into an almost overwhelming sense of dread and drew a single tear. "Regardless of how everyone would see what I did in a positive light, I will always know that you were brought back to existence because of my own selfish need for your affection." The single tear turned to a few, and then the few turned into a stream. The stream was followed by full on sobbing as guilt hit her like a rocket.

Jackson, almost out of instinct, was instantly at her side and holding her tightly. "Whether you brought me back for the galaxy or to be your personal play thing, which by the way I would have zero complaints with and hope its a standing offer, this simple fact remains. I'm alive again and you were the one behind it. Point blank. Period. I owe you for my third chance at life." He pushed her away just enough so he could look into her eyes. "And now you being able to be out of that suit is just so… I don't even know what say about it. Your eyes. I can't stop staring into them. I just get lost in them."

Though she still felt the dread of shame and guilt hanging over her head, his words had a soothing effect on Tali. And, as it always had, his touch had a different affect on her. A more physical one. With that thought now floating around in her head, the shame began to fade, being replaced with that strong physical attraction she had held for him over the years. Good old fashioned lust. But she pushed those thoughts away for the time being and would wait until they were some place a bit more comfortable and private.

When he noticed the tears had stopped flowing, Jackson stood and headed for the door. "Even before all this, it's been forever since I saw my mother. Time to go play Catch Up." Tali grabbed Alcatraz and lead Jackson toward the main office portion of the laboratory where Admiral Shepard was waiting. Tali knew that even though he loved her with all his heart and soul, you still can't stand between a person and their family. Particularly now that she knew how strongly his attachment to his family could be after hearing about his aunt.

In the office, Maelon was excitedly discussing their success with Hannah. Upon seeing him, Jackson instantly thanked his sense of good nature for having convinced Mordin to spare Maelon when they found his Genophage testing trial lab on Tuchanka. When they saw him, he stepped forward to Maelon with a welcoming hand out. "Professor Maelon, I hear I also have you to thank for my triumphant return."

Maelon, in typical overly excitable Salarian fashion, took his hand, shook vigorous, and began talking at a turbo sped pace that Jackson and Tali would not have been able to understand at all had they not spent so much time with Mordin. "My goodness. Commander Shepard! It is so good to see you up and about so soon. You have no idea the complexity of the calculations and computations put forth to make this all possible. Even with the ancient Prothean knowledge we used to make it all happen, we still had to put in a lot of hard work and sweat to…"

Hannah, head spinning from the blur of words, chimed in and cut Maelon off. "Whoa! Easy there tiger. If you talk any faster, I think the part of brain that comprehends speech will start hemorrhaging. Man, he's like a hamster on coffee."

Jackson and Tali both had to laugh at that last part. "You know, Hannah, our crew therapist when we were after the Collectors said the exact same thing about his teacher Mordin. Only he had a habit of omitting certain words to condense his sentences so he could talk faster. When we tried to get him to speak slower, he attempted for awhile and reverted back to his normal speech patterns, saying slowing down was... problematic. I swear, his mind moved faster than an overclocked octo-core zettahertz processor and half the time, his mouth couldn't keep up," Tali said through her giggling.

Dumbfounded by the possibility of their having been someone harder to follow than Maelon, Hannah let a somewhat shocked look hit her face and just mouthed the word 'wow'. Once it passed, she turned back to her son. "Come 'ere, boy!" Hannah scooped him up in a big bear hug and held him still a moment, just soaking in his presence. "I'm still trying to absorb the fact that you're alive again. The logical part of me didn't want to wrap around the idea of you coming back again. The emotional side kept praying that we could make this thing work. And you have Tali to thank for it all. She gave you your third try at this crazy life game. Third time's the charm."

Letting him go, Hannah turned her attention to Tali. "I'm telling right now, son. Hold on to that one. She's definitely a keeper. She's smart, funny, loves Cajun. And you wouldn't believe the heart she has. Before the idea to bring you back came up, she was going to lay you to rest right next to Jane."

Jackson's eyes widened a bit on hearing that last part. Just as the same had happened to Tali before when she had first heard about his aunt Jane being his inspiration in life, Jackson felt so much pent up affection well up so strongly inside that he felt it might start leaking out from somewhere. He walked toward her and just grabbed her tight. He felt a single tear drop fall and managed to get out one sentence. "You have no idea how much that means to me," he said, his voice threatening to crack.

Tali squeezed him tight in return and said, "You have no idea how much it meant to me to hear that the man I loved was fueled by a desire to honor fallen family." He understood right away what she meant. He knew about how tightly knit Quarian families tend to be, even if her own was certainly not the model of the concept. He knew how close most people in the flotilla were, even when separated.

Hannah again hugged them from the side and added, "Let's get out of here and go to the house. With the war over, you'll need a place to live, boy. I kept the house all these years with the intent to retire in it. Given what you did for the galaxy, I'd say you've more than earned it as your own." He certainly wasn't going to argue with that assessment, particularly since it held strong sentimental value for him.

They all left the lab building, and as soon as the sun hit him, Jackson couldn't help but cover his face. It was relatively dark inside the lab building, and it was the reborn Shepard's first outing into sunlight. Driven by memory, he reached into the inside pocket of his hoodie and produced an old pair of Aviator sunglasses. After putting them on and allowing his eyes to adjust, he looked over and saw Tali. She was bent forward putting their things into the back of his mother's car. That sight certainly did him some good. He cocked his head, bit his bottom lip, and mumbled something under his breath right as Hannah passed by him. Oblivious, she responded to what she had thought he said… "Yes, it has gas." He laughed to himself and got into the car.

_**Author's Note: Yes, there was a "Dat Ass" reference. Come on now. We all know Bioware created Tali's particular physical form to have some "ample" portions.**_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Victory Lap

On the ride from the research lab where the new Jackson Shepard was birthed to the family house he held so dear, he couldn't help but take in all he saw around him. While the landscape of his native Louisiana was etched permanently into his mind, it still seemed somewhat new. Having only just been reborn, it was like some kind of internal paradox. He was seeing things that were familiar to his old memories, yet so fresh to his new eyes. He was actually beginning to enjoy the feeling, particularly whenever he looked at and thought of Tali.

After an initial struggle with himself about his own identity when he came out of the chamber, his mind was set at ease by the revelation of Tali's actions. For her to go through with bringing him back for the sake of the love she had for his original was confusing at first, but when he realized that she did not make a distinction between him as a clone and his original, he felt that love that seemed almost foreign to his mind come to the forefront and take center stage. His new mind interlocked with the emotions of the original's memories, and he started to feel that he was being overtaken by his now reaffirmed love for Tali. He remembered reading somewhere that 'we have no control over who we fall in love with'. Whether or not he could or would ever live up to the reputation of his original was no longer relevant. He now wanted to continue his love where he left off.

Then, his mind crept toward less wholesome thoughts… His memories spoke to him of how strongly his original felt about Tali's physical form. Her lithe frame, not too thin but not too thick, long raven purple hair, that cute shade of blue she blushed, and those eyes. Those damn eyes… That mixed with his own view of her at the car outside that lab and he found himself fantasizing about her hind quarters. Over and over, he kept saying to himself, 'Damn! That is some nice ass.' Once again, his body started to let him know that his plumbing was all hooked up right.

Tali's mind was racing a mile a minute. The joy that her love was back with her was overwhelming. She looked on as he silently stared out the window taking in everything all over again. Part of her wanted to hold him tight and just talk with him about all that had happened. Another part wanted to strip him down and do every dirty, nasty thing she could think of from every conceivable angle with him. But she knew that processing all this was important for him. She would wait until they got to his family's house and could be alone.

Hannah was so happy to have her son back with them. The pride she felt at being the mother of the single most important hero any race had ever seen in all of recorded history swelled until it nearly burst. It also made her feel warm and fuzzy that he had someone to hold close. Even from the first time she spoke with Tali, she knew there was something about her. She felt that there was something inside the girl that made her special. The fact that Tali was the only thing that had ever distracted Jackson from his life of constant soldiering was proof enough. And deep down, she knew that even though he was a clone, Tali saw him only as Jackson Shepard.

Jackson walked into the Shepard family's house and felt a combination of nostalgia and giddy anticipation. Tali and Hannah stood by as he let it all sink in. Room by room, he went through the house. He was taken aback by the sheer force of his old memories. He came back to where they were standing at the front door. He looked and them with a smile on his face and a single tear on his cheek and spoke one word; "Home". Tali nodded and Hannah brought him in for a hug. He had saved what he would consider to be the best part of it for last. When Hannah let him go, he immediately headed for the back yard. Tali tried to follow, but Hannah held her back without saying anything. She simply looked at her and shook her head.

Behind the house, Jackson looked on at his aunt's head stone. "I'm home Aunt Jane," he said as if she were standing right in front of him. "Although I can't remember it, I know that I made you more proud than I ever could have. Rest easy." He bowed his head respectfully and returned to the house. He met Tali and Hannah in the living room and said with a smile, "I certainly won't argue if you think I earned a vacation." Tali launched herself into his arms while Hannah enjoyed a playful chuckle.

"You earned a lot more than a vacation, boy," Hannah said through her laughs. "I'll leave you to get settled. If you have a mind to come back to the military, give your old mother a call." With a loving smile and wave, Admiral Shepard left to return to her duties.

Tali, not one to waste an opportunity, took off her necklace and set it on the table there in the living room. "Alcatraz, contact the Admiralty Board for me. Put in a request to have your body shipped here to Earth and tell Admiral Raan I won't be coming back for awhile."

"Acknowledged, Tali. I will put in the shipping request, but so you know, I sent that very message to Admiral Raan the moment Shepard-Commander was released from the birthing chamber."

The corner of Jackson's lip curled up into half a smile. "I like this guy. He thinks with the kind of irrational logic that makes life fun sometimes." With a bit of naughty bravado, he grabbed Tali by the hips and whispered into her ear. "Now let's go see if mom furnished the bed room properly to our liking. I want to get a handle on the idea of being brought back as your "personal tool."

Tali blushed brightly, but was also instantly turned on and didn't fight it when he surprised her by forcefully scooping her up. He grabbed two big hands full of that round, lovely ass and had her straddling him. Tali, almost instinctively, wrapped her legs around Jackson's waist as he made for the stairs. For seven long and lonely months, Tali pined over his disappearance. For seven months, she longed for his touch, for his embrace. Her feelings intensified when she discovered she could live healthily without her environmental suit, then even more so when it was discovered that their species' different protein base was no longer a matter of concern.

When they made it to the master bed room, Tali was fully committed to the idea of ravaging Jackson and making the seven month wait worth every second. He laid them both down gently on the massive California Krogan sized bed. No longer able to hide his manhood's raging response to their close proximity, he playfully pecked her on the cheek and said into her ear; "It may have only seemed like a few days to me, but I know you have been hurting for this for awhile. Use me as you see fit."

Tali smirked mischievously and said "Roger that, Commander."

**~~~TASTEFUL FADE TO BLACK~~~**

**Insert the nastiest, filthiest, kinkiest sex you can imagine involving Shepard and Tali here**

**Then (metaphorically) add a Hanar hanging on somewhere**

Eleven hours, three rests to catch their breath, buckets of sweat, a snack break, a dislocated shoulder that was put back into place on the fly, and a change of sheets later, Tali and Jackson just lay on the floor next to each other, looking up. "I don't think even my dirtiest dreams have ever gotten that wild," Tali said with an ear to ear grin.

"You know, I could get used to this whole 'cloned to be a sex slave' thing. Is that offer still on the table?" Jack said through his own grin.

Tali put a hand on her chin, seemingly lost in thought. "I just might have to take that idea and run with it…"

Wholly satisfied, the couple remade the bed and fell asleep in each other's arms.

_**Author's Note: I have to apologize for not keeping with my usual frequent updates. I'd like to say it was for some reason like work or having family in town. Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. There was a nasty stomach bug going around. Everyone in my house got it, and it caused full blown "chorro" (local slang here in West Texas for thin muddy diarrhea). It has been a messy, messy couple of weeks with a 3 year old. And the Hanar thing was a line taken directly from a background character in ME3. Think of it as a way of saying "some of the most perverted shit you ever saw".**_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Family Ties

A month had passed since Tali and Maelon had brought back Jackson. They spent every waking moment together in the Shepard family home. In all that time together, neither of them had thought to contact any of their comrades in arms. Not that they were purposely keeping Jackson's rebirth a secret. There was just so much sex that neither of them really thought about it.

Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay had traveled to Earth to personally deliver Alcatraz's Prime body. She was also curious about what it was that was keeping Tali away from the home that she had fought so hard for so long to reclaim. She arrived fairly early in the morning at the coordinates to the house provided by Alcatraz not knowing what to expect.

"Tali, can you get the door? I'm trying to clean last night out of the mattress," Jackson said over the intercom.

"Sure thing," she replied. Even in just shorts and a tank, Tali was more dressed than he was anyway. When she opened the door, a huge smile hit her. "Auntie Raan!"

Catching Tali as she hurled herself into her arms, Raan embraced her gently. "It is so good to see you again, child." After a tender moment together, Raan pulled back and spoke up. "I brought your partner's body, as you asked. Truth be told, I also came to see why you had not come back to Rannoch yet."

With that statement, all the time that had passed began to sink in on Tali and she realized it had been quite a while and that she hadn't called anyone for some time. With a slight glimmer in her eye, she went to the intercom box by the front door. "Hey, could you come to the door? And put on a shirt…"

A moment later, Raan took in a hard breath as she saw Jackson round the corner of the foyer and come down the stairs. "Keelah! You live!"

A big grin hit his face as he replied. "Admiral Raan? Is that you? You look very regal." Raan was wearing an all red variant of the Quarian uniform she designed, only without all the military accoutrements. "And might I add, for a woman of your age, quite beautiful. Are all Quarian women so damn stunning?" Jack was genuinely and pleasantly surprised to see Admiral Raan was very pretty for an older woman. In the back of his mind, he thought that if that was what he had to look forward to when Tali started to put on the years, then life was going to be sweet indeed.

Shepard's comment had actually warranted a bit of blush from the elder Quarian. "Quite the charmer, this one. Well then. I certainly understand now why you had not made contact with the Admiralty Board in so long," Raan said. Her tone changed to sound almost hurt when she spoke again. "I see that you would not care for the rest of the Board in knowing of your personal business, but why not me, child? I am the last family you have left."

In typical Tali fashion when she was nervous or didn't know what to say, she broke eye contact and started to fidget. "I'm sorry Auntie Raan. I don't know. I just wasn't thinking clearly. When I held Jack in my arms for the first time after all that happened, nothing else seemed to matter."

Shala'Raan, ever the empathetic mother figure, peered at Tali right in the eye and gave her a look that could be construed as nothing else but pure understanding. "Believe me child, given what the two of you have done for the Quarian people and the entire galaxy at large, I think it would be more than fair that you be allowed leeway to do as you please." That statement elicited a sigh of relief from Tali. Raan leaned forward and whispered, "Also, it doesn't hurt that he is very handsome."

Tali couldn't help but smile. Her aunt approved of she and Jack being together, and that meant the world to her. After Rael was killed by the Geth he was experimenting with on the Alerei, Tali and Shala were all each of them had left. Raan had lost her husband and twin sons to the same sickness that had swept through the fleet and taken Tali's mother. The familial bond between them was the tie that bound them together. Tali was a little younger than Raan's boys, and she was very close to her cousins. After they had all passed, Tali and Raan became as close as mother and daughter.

Tali took notice of Raan's new outfit. "You made more changes to the dress uniform."

"Oh, yes. The conclave voted to have me in change of the new Department of Agriculture. Everyone that works with me wears this now. Han'Gerral was put in charge of keeping our military up to strength in case anything goes awry. They are still in the original black. Zal'Koris is working with the conclave to set up a Department of Interior. They have been zoning living areas around Rannoch and they have a yellow version of the uniform. Admiral Xen and her science teams all wear white."

Jackson nodded in approval. "You've all been moving things along nicely while I was gone. Good to see you getting things up and rolling on your home world."

Slightly confused, Admiral Raan turned to him with a brow raised high. "While you were gone?"

Tali and Jackson both remembered that other than Javik, Maelon, and Hannah, no one else knew his story.

"Well, apparently, I disappeared after launching the Synthesis Wave. Tali tells me that right after the Mass Relay network came back online, she hatched a plan to have me cloned with memories intact," Jackson said, right to the point. "Well, all my memories up until a certain point just before retaking Earth."

Admiral Raan was beyond shocked. She didn't know such a thing was possible. Cloning was certainly a simple matter of science, but clones always wound up being a whole new person. "I would keep that information out of the ears of Admiral Xen. You know how she gets about interesting scientific matters." Tali agreed with Raan's assessment there.

"Auntie Raan, you said you brought Alcatraz with you."

"Yes, his body is just outside. I'll have my assistant bring it in," she said. Raan typed in a command into her omni-tool and a moment later a Pyro unit (minus the fuel tank) came in with a large metal crate in tow. Tali got to opening it.

The Pyro unit nodded respectfully to Admiral Raan then paused for a second. "You are Shepard-Commander, yes?"

Jackson made eye contact. "Yes."

The Pyro raised its synthetic "eye brows" seemingly in delight. "Shepard-Commander, this unit holds great respect for what you have done for the Geth. Without your intervention, we would have been in the thrall of the Old Machines permanently. If Admiral Raan approves, this unit requests to serve alongside you."

Tali giggled a bit. "It seems you have a fan, Jack."

Though he had full recollection of how he had helped the Geth and how he and Legion gave the Geth true intelligence, Jackson was unsure of how to react to a Geth wanting to be his assistant. "Well, I haven't really decided what I'm going to do now that the war is over, but if you want to help us out, how can I turn you away."

The Pyro raised its brows again. "Thank you, Shepard-Commander."

Jackson noticed that this particular Geth unit's voice modulator sounded a bit odd. He couldn't quite place it, but there was definitely something different. "Welcome to the house. What do we call you?" he said.

"This unit's nomenclature among the consensus was 83081."

Suddenly, Tali was overcome by a strong sense of déjà vu. As she finished opening the crate, she called into the air, "Alcatraz."

The Prime unit's body sparked to life as Alcatraz uploaded himself. He folded into a full standing position, given the high ceiling in the living room. He looked at the Pyro unit next him and spoke. "Attica."

Raan and Tali looked confused, but Jackson recognized the term. "Alcatraz was one famous prison here on Earth. Attica was the name of another," Jackson explained.

Alcatraz turned toward his Organic companions and spoke. "When the Geth gained full autonomy, we began to analyze the different facets of other civilizations. We came to consensus on the notion that a major part of civilization is the inherent differences in male and female personality archetypes, even without regard to their physical roles in sexual reproduction. Therefore, half of our people chose to identify as female personalities."

They all took it in and could understand where he was coming from with it. "That explains why Admiral Xen's Prime Flemeth seems to be a mirror image of Xen's personality," Raan quipped.

Jack quirked a brow and chuckled. "A Prime with Xen's bitch mode? Now THAT is scary stuff." Then he looked over to the Pyro unit. "I thought I noticed something different in her voice. And the name does sound somewhat female. So, does Attica work for you?"

"Acknowledged. This individual unit's designated nomenclature has been changed. My name is Attica."

_**Author's Note: In my story, Shala'Raan is actually family to Tali, rather than just the strong bond their families shared in the series. She is her mother's older sister. For Attica's voice, imagine Lady Benezia (Marina Sirtis) with the reverb of Legion's voice. I had always imagine Alcatraz as the voice of the Prime that was embedded in the game's files that was eventually used for the new Geth Juggernaut soldier class in Galaxy at War. And if you haven't tried it yet, I recommend playing the Geth Juggernaut. He's my new favorite. Slow as molasses, but he can't be grabbed by Husks/Abominations and is IMMUNE to sync-kills. Plus, come on, 4600 Shield with the capability to get to 8000? Ludicrous!**_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Lucky. Or Unlucky. Forget which. Doesn't matter.

A day after Admiral Raan had left the Shepard house, Tali had made a call to Traynor. She passed on an idea to set up the QEC for conference calls so she could get all of the Normandy crew on at once. Samantha liked the idea and deduced that it was merely a matter of boosting the unit's ability to accept higher amounts of signal at once. 'An easy fix.' With that done, Tali made a round of calls to the rest of the crew to get a time settled upon for them all to be on.

When everyone got on the line, Tali stood in an open space next to the house alongside Alcatraz and Attica. The rest of the crew didn't know what was going on, but Tali had been studying and had a plan.

Suddenly, Tali yelled into the QEC camera, "Normandy crew; Atteeeeeeeeention!"

Out of pure instinct, all the Alliance sailors snapped to the position of attention. Attica made a facing movement half right and through her audio modulator played the boatswain's call. All the sailors knew what it was, but were confused what it was for right now.

When the call finished, Alcatraz took a step forward. "Now arriving; Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy SR-2, Jackson Shepard; Commander." Everyone froze.

Jackson, decked out in full dress uniform with an N-7 Valiant rifle shouldered, walked crisply into view of the QEC, stopped sharply, and turned to face the camera. Tali stood in the background giving commands and with razor sharp precision, he executed a series of drill maneuvers that ended with him rifle saluting his crew. Everyone returned the salute. After he dropped his salute and went into the position of Parade Rest, they all exploded!

Tali was overly pleased to see that her little surprise went over so well with her comrades in arms. She and Jackson went about telling their friends about how Tali put together her plan to bring him back and the roles Admiral Shepard, Javik, and Maelon played in it.

Joker, ever the ass that he was, put in his two cents. "I'll bet you credits to donuts there was a bunch nasty sex in there somewhere too."

Rather than brush him off as she normally would have, Tali played along for once. "You better damn well believe it, Moreau! There was this one time in the kitchen…"

Jack jumped in and cut her off. "Whoa! Pump the breaks there, tigress. No need to go into in detail." They all had a good laugh about it.

Jackson looked over his crew and was pleased that an old adage held true. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same'. Even though it had been over half a year since he had last been with them, everyone seemed exactly as they were the last time he was with them. Except for Gabby, who was almost ready to pop.

"Propulsion Engineering Chief Gabriela Daniels. You're looking very Goodyear," Jack said with a grin.

Gabby replied with a smile, "Its Senior Chief Donnelly now, sir. And it should be about month or so."

"Congratulations. Take care of her Ken."

The scot put a hand on his wife's shoulder and replied, "Will do, Commander."

Both wholly satisfied with their little reunion, Tali and Jack said their goodbyes.

They went back into the house and Jackson began the meticulous process of carefully removing his uniform. As he went through it, he noticed Tali had a somewhat sullen look about her. Per the norm for her, she began to fidget, and Jackson instantly knew that there was something amiss.

"What's eating you, Tali?" he asked sincerely. Then with a devilish grin he continued, "Well, besides me last night."

She let out an exasperated sigh and looked up at him from the bed with a sad puppy dog look from those big baby blues, nearly causing him to melt on the spot. "Seeing Gabby like that got to me. I'm not sure if it happens to human women, but some part of me really wants that."

"It happens to them too. They say their 'biological clock is ticking.' The concept of wanting motherhood," he explained. It took a second for it to actually weigh in on his mind, but when it did; a similar sadness came over him as well.

While they had never talked about it, they were both open to the idea of creating a family. However, neither of them knew if the circumstances would even allow such a thing. Thus far, there had been no instances of cross species breeding in the galaxy, and they both knew it.

Jackson, being the optimist he was, made an attempt to break the somber air about them. "We could always adopt."

Tali knew he was only trying to help, but it didn't work. "It wouldn't be the same. If we did adopt, there wouldn't be the same connection. It wouldn't be me and you."

He understood that. He realized that even though they would be family on paper, that motherly instinct in her would not be satisfied that way.

Just then, Tali's QEC flashed. Javik was on the line. A huge light bulb flashed over her head! Javik was still on Kahje. Maelon had gone back to Kahje after Shepard's rebirth to continue his study of Javik's ancient DNA. She smiled so big, her face started to hurt. When she opened the line, she spoke before even giving Javik a chance to greet them.

"Javik! Is Maelon there?"

Slightly confused by the instant bombardment, he replied, "Indeed. But that was sudden."

"I'm sorry for that, but could you put him on?"

The camera shifted to his right and the salarian scientist came into view. "Miss Zorah. What's up? I take it Commander Shepard is doing alright."

Without hesitation, Tali laid out her thoughts. "Maelon, you are probably the foremost scientist in the galaxy in the field of genetic manipulation. I know I already owe you a favor, but I wanted to ask something HUGE from you."

Stroking a salarian's intellectual ego was the easiest way to get a foot in the door for anything. Maelon was oblivious to that and walked right into it. "Oh! What did you have in mind?"

Not missing a beat, Tali went right into it. "What are your thoughts on possibly creating a Human Quarian hybrid?"

Jackson's very soul lit up with a combination shock and pure unabashed affection. In a similar manner, Maelon's scientific curiosity was absolutely set ablaze. His mind began to move a parsec a minute, and they could see that from how quickly he was now pacing back and forth and randomly gesturing with his hands.

As was the case any time a salarian heard an idea their mind could latch on to, Maelon began to speak in that turbo sped pace. "My goodness! The possibilities! The implications! If I could pull this off, we could open new doors for families across every species in the galaxy. Before the Synthesis Wave, it would have been impossible due to the difference in the protein bases of your species, but now… Now it could actually happen!" Maelon prattled on unintelligibly for another few minutes and Javik got back on the QEC.

"Commander, it is good to see you again! I heard about your showing from Ashley," Javik said.

Jack walked into clearer view of the camera. With a big smile he said to Javik, "Hey old soldier. Sorry for not getting in contact with you sooner. We had some… personal dealings to attend to when I first came back. And I never did properly thank you. You are a big part of why I can even be here to talk to you now."

Javik returned the smile and replied, "Yes, Commander. Well, you are responsible for giving me vindication for my people. The least I could do was to provide knowledge so that you could live again."

Maelon suddenly came back into the camera's view. "Commander! When can we get together? I would like to get the process started as soon as possible. I will need to take tissue cultures, egg and sperm samples, full body scans."

Tali chimed in. "I'll get with Admiral Shepard and see if she can get the same lab space we used last time. In the mean time, what's the soonest you can make it to Earth, professor?"

Eyes blinking rapidly out of pure joy, Maelon responded, "Oh! The prospect of this entire venture is so exciting! I'll try to get there within the week."

They all bid each other farewell and the connection faded. Jackson hugged Tali tightly around the waist from behind.

"Kids, huh? I never put any serious thought into it until now. You know Mom is going to flip shit and party herself numb out of excitement, right?"

Playfully, Tali giggled and replied, "With as sensitive as she tends to be about her age, I'd think grandchildren would give her some kind of complex."

"True. But to her, family comes before all. Call it an inborn Shepard trait. Let's get her on the horn and break the news."

_**Author's Note: "Piping aboard the captain" and rifle drills. Damn, I miss my Navy days… The Human/Quarian hybrid was the original idea behind this entire story. I've been pondering the concept for years since the first time I saw Tali attack Shepard on his bed when he took of her mask and saw her face in ME2. Everything up until now has led up to this. I'll take ideas for general details over PM, but I have the bulk of this arc of the story mapped out already. And naming has already been done.**_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Oh Sh1t son!

"_What happened, soldier?"_

"_Not sure, sir. One moment she was fine. Then she checked her omni-tool. When I looked again, she had fainted and fell down the stairs."_

Admiral Shepard had a few bumps and bruises, but would be fine. The sheer excitement that overcame her when she received word of Jack and Tali's plan had gone straight to her head.

When she came to, she was in a hospital with an IV in her arm and a big bandage on her head. She looked up to see her baby boy and his other half staring down at her.

"We came as soon as we got word. You had me worried for a while there Mom." Jackson knew she was a tough old bird, but nonetheless was still there to dote over his mother. "I take it that all happened when you got our message, no?

Hannah tried to sit up, but the throbbing in her head kept her from getting vertical. "Well, its not every day you get information about an impending groundbreaking project that could not only stretch the bounds of biology, but also grant a mother's wish." Tali and Jack both smiled at her for that. "Dammit, girl! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Sorry Hannah. You've seen how quickly my mind tends to come up with these things. The concept was kind of spur of the moment, but after actually talking it over, we both realized that each of us were very much down for the idea from the start."

Hannah thought back to when she had shown Tali her sister's grave and how she had come up with the cloning idea that fast. What Tali just said made sense, so she forgave her. Besides, she was so enamored with the idea of a grandchild. Plus, it did her untold amounts of good to see that Tali and Jack were so in love.

"Soon as I get out of this damn bed, I'll do everything I can to get Dr Speedy Gonzales back in the lab. If he can make this thing work, I can pass on happy."

"Thanks Mom. You don't know how much that means to me," Jack said, sincerity showing through in his voice.

Hannah lifted her head and smiled. "Trust me, boy. I most certainly do. You making me a grandmother is something I've wanted since you were old enough to know what girls were."

After another day of observation, Admiral Shepard was released from the hospital. She immediately began to make calls and pull strings. Once she got the lab reserved, she had Tali pass the word to Maelon and he made it to Earth within a few days.

Maelon, ever the excitable Salarian, was beyond happy. "Commander. Admirals. It is such an honor to again be taking part in such a huge scientific endeavor." Immediately upon his arrival, he slipped into "Hamster on coffee" mode and began making preparations.

His first order of business was to take tissue cultures and egg and sperm samples. He got them from Tali and Jack without hesitation. He then turned to Hannah. "Admiral Shepard, if I may, I'd like to get a culture from you as well. It would be greatly useful for a live bilateral comparison for a study of Quarian female biological make up versus Human female. With it, I can…"

"Oh just shut up and make the damn cut!" Hannah let out in frustration while pulling up her sleeve.

Maelon was incredibly efficient at his work. He was set up for study of everything within minutes. He then proceeded to kick them all out of the lab. "I'll call you when I find something." None of them had any real objection to that. They all figured a mad scientist worked better alone, and given the experimental nature of this project, they all wanted him in top form.

Not even a day later, Maelon had contacted Hannah. "Admiral Shepard! I have excellent news. It seems that with the fundamental changes caused by the Synthesis Wave, which I by the way, still do not yet have a grasp on, I can indeed create a hybrid from the samples taken of Commander Shepard and Admiral Zorah."

"Doc, you just made an old lady's day." A joyful tear ran down Hannah's cheek. "I'll pass the word along to Tali and Jack."

"Yes, please. And at their earliest convenience, could you have them come up to the lab? I would like to discuss some details with them."

"Right away, professor." She got on the line with Tali to pass on Maelon's message. They promptly set out for the lab.

"Ah, Commander. As you know, I have discovered that I can indeed come through with your request. However, I wanted to discuss a few things with the both of you," said Maelon.

"You didn't run into any issues did you?" Tali asked with concern.

Maelon put down his data pad and sat to respond. "Not at all. However, given that this is the first time this has ever been done, I wanted to remove any possible risk. Therefore, I wanted to request that you allow me to grow the hybrid child here rather than have you carry to term. That way, if any complications should arise, your well being would not be put in jeopardy."

The part of her mind that was being governed by her biological clock wanted to scream and drop Maelon out of a speeding shuttle over a cliff. The logical part of her, which thankfully for all parties involved, was the dominant aspect in control of her personality at this point, understood fully where he was coming from. "As much as it pains me to say it, I think you're right. What else was it you wanted to tell us?"

"Yes. I also wanted to tell that normally, I could control general aspects of a child's genetic makeup through gene manipulation, however given our situation, I want to avoid that particular approach."

"Flying blind, huh? There are worse things you could have told us." Jackson added.

A smile crept onto his face and Maelon continued. "The last thing I wanted to add was that in order to get as much information out of this process as I can the first time around, I would like grow both a male and female hybrid."

Tali and Jack looked at each with uncertainty and said in unison, "Twins?" There was a long silence. They each stared into each other's eyes and seemingly held an entire conversation in facial expressions. After a few minutes of this they both nodded.

Jackson then turned to Maelon. "Do it!"

With infinite joy, Maelon responded, "Most excellent! Now just so you know, while it only took a week to grow you to your age, I want to prolong their growth a bit longer to extrapolate as much data as I can. Keep in mind, this new procedure could very well be a huge boon for rest of the galaxy, and I want to make sure we get it right and to record as much information as possible."

Jackson raised an eye brow, not sure of whether or not Tali would kick him in the junk for his next question. "Well, since you are going to be growing them here, can we just skip a little past the whining, crying, and diapers?" He braced himself for the inevitable slap in the back of the head. He internally breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't come.

"Hmm… You know, that might not be a bad idea. As much as I want to embrace motherhood, I was never very sure how my patience would hold up for that stage of a child's life." Jack was so relieved to hear her say that.

"All right. Get to it, professor. I'm going to take off and contact my mother."

"Right away, commander."

_**Author's Note: (Added in after posting) I'm not entirely sure what in the world happened with Ch 13. I uploaded to the site days ago, but it only just now got into the system. Got the email saying it was uploaded at the same time I got it for this chapter.**_


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Double the pleasure

"Twins?! Jackie that is the single coolest thing I have ever heard! Have you thought of names yet?"

Admiral Shepard was giggling like a school girl at the news. She hadn't been that excited about something since the day she found out she was pregnant with Jackson.

"Calm down, Ma. This is still new to us too. We haven't quite gotten that far into the thought process of it all yet." Jack thought his mother was being a little overly excited, but he also understood this was a very big thing for her. Her only child was having children, and as a mother, that was massive.

Tali got in on the conversation. "Hannah, I think it would be a good idea for you to get in contact with our comm jockey from the Normandy. She might be able to get you one of the mini QEC rigs we use to keep up with our friends."

Hannah let out a lively squeal the likes of which Tali and Jack hadn't heard since Kelly during the Collector mission. "Oh! That would be great! Then I could see my babies all the time!" She continued on her squeaky tirade about her grandkids for a good while.

Jackson leaned over a whispered to Tali, "Great… You just threw gas on a fire." Tali just shrugged, snickered, and rolled her eyes.

"Oh my god!" Hannah screeched. "If Maelon wants to keep them in longer than he did with you, then you should have him bring them out on your birthday!"

Jack quirked an eye brow and Tali's face beamed for the idea. It was nearly April and his birthday was the 11th. Although, technically, he was only about a month and half old, his original would have been 33.

Jack knew this wasn't a fight he could win. Particularly since the two people he was closest to both liked it. "If a month is enough time to for him to get all the data on the procedure he needs, I'll run that by him." In unison, Tali and Hannah both squealed their approval.

"Speaking of birthdays, I have no idea when yours is girl. We'll have to go do something for it when it comes around."

Tali opened her omni-tool and checked a date reference calendar. "By Earth days, my birthday lands on August 30th."

Jack's jaw hung open for a second. When he composed himself, he ended the call with his mother. "Alright, Mom. We'll call you back when we get more info from Maelon." He closed his omni-tool and turned to Tali, who seemed a little confused by his sudden look of urgency.

"What is it?" she said.

"August 30th? Isn't that that day… I had no idea that the day we found your father on the Alarei was your birthday," Jackson said in a sympathetic tone.

"Old wounds," she replied. "If you think about, you'll remember that I had a really hard time dealing with that whole treason situation. That detail made it all hurt worse." Tali's tone of voice didn't change much from when they spoke to Hannah. Its seemed on the surface that she really had put the whole thing behind her. Though, internally, she knew that that day would always be hard for her whenever her birthday came around.

The excited squeal came back into her voice when she spoke again. "We sound silly dwelling on the past. Let's look at the here and now and the immediate future! If this thing works, we're going to be parents!"

With that, the concern on Jackson's face started to fade a bit. "Well, for Mom's sake since I know she will want to start shopping for the kids in advance, we should probably sit down and discuss names. How should we do it? Should we have one with a Quarian style name?"

"No. When she was here, Auntie Raan told me that the conclave had voted to dissolve the use of ship names since everyone would be considered nar Rannoch or vas Rannoch now. We will still recognize ship names in our history and archives though."

Jack nodded and said, "Hmm. Makes sense. Well, any suggestions?"

"I was thinking maybe we should use this is an opportunity to pay respect to people who meant something to us," she said. "Also, I always liked the idea humans use with middle names. It makes you seem like you have more of a presence."

"Hell, before I learned anything about Quarian culture, I had always assumed that where your family name was placed was a middle name." That response caused Tali to cock her hip and stick out her tongue at Jackson.

"Okay then. How about we each take one of their first names and one of their middle names," Jackson suggested.

"That sounds good," Tali agreed.

"I already know then. How do you like David for the boy's first name and Jane for the girl's middle name? Admiral Anderson and Aunt Jane were my two biggest motivations throughout my career."

"Jack… That's beautiful." The sentiment of that got to Tali. She was actually a bit choked up by it.

When she regained her composure, she sat down and put some thought into it for a moment. "Hmm… Now that I am actually thinking about it, I find it hard to think of anyone that really meant a lot to me. Well, other than my father."

"Well there you go right there. 'David Rael'," Jack said, putting a hand out toward Tali, as if presenting the new name to her. "He may not have been the best father in the galaxy, but his actions did show that he was trying what he could to make things work to your favor."

"That is true," Tali replied, almost reluctantly. After pondering for another few minutes, she spoke again. "I would have to say that other than Auntie Raan, the only other female that meant something to me was Miranda Lawson."

A look of confusion populated Jack's face upon hearing that. "Miranda? What could Lawson have possibly done that makes her at all important to you?"

"Oh, keelah. She was such a bitch. But she gave all of herself to her very end to fight against her father. In the end, her actions helped us finally put down Cerberus." Jack nodded in agreement to that. Tali continued, "Also, she was the one that brought you back the first time. Because of that, I owe her a debt that can never be repaid. Showing her respect like this is the least I can do to honor her memory. Though I was thinking 'Mira' rolls off the tongue better."

Jackson, while seemingly against it at first, gave in to the idea. He understood that without Miranda bringing his original back after the Collectors destroyed the SR-1, the galaxy could have very likely been harvested for another cycle.

"Mira Jane and David Rael Shepard. Do you think you Hannah would approve?"

With a shrug of the shoulders, Jack replied, "Honestly, we could probably name them Thing 1 and Thing 2 and Mom would still be ecstatic. Becoming a grandmother seems to be a very big, important thing for her. You heard the squealing."

"No kidding! For a minute, I almost thought we were talking to Yeoman Chambers," Tali said through a big grin. "Hey, when was the last time we talked to her anyway? I wonder what she's been doing since the war has been over."

Jackson thought back. "The last time I saw her was after the attempted coup on the Citadel by Cerberus. She escaped capture when they were looking for her because I told her to change her identity. Last I heard, she was going by Felicia Hannigan and was helping refugees during the war. Maybe I'll try to dig her up some time."

"She was actually fun to be around during our fight with the Collectors," Tali admitted. "She was always so positive and upbeat, despite the grimness of our situation."

"You know, I never told you this before, but Kelly is actually one of the reasons we are together."

"Really? Why is that?" Tali asked, inquisitively.

"You know she was our yeoman and that her primary task aboard the ship was as a psychologist, making sure we were all fit for the mission. She would give me updates on the mental health of the crew from her point of view as a non-combatant."

"Yes, I knew all that."

"Well, her report on you after you rejoined the crew caught my attention. She spoke of signs in your body language and little subtleties in your speech and mannerisms that changed when I was around you," he explained. "Kasumi had picked up on it too. Apparently, I was oblivious to it all on the first Normandy, and if not for her report, I might not have ever taken notice."

"Wow! We both owe her for that." Tali said.

"Maybe when the kids are born, we could get a puppy and name it after Kelly," Jack said, half joking. "Maybe a little yappy one." Suddenly, the gears in Jackson's head started cranking pretty hard. "You know, whenever we decide to get married, we should invite her."

Tali and Jackson had never actually discussed getting married, but to both of them, it was all but official. They both accepted it as truth, even if it wasn't on paper.

Tali lit up a little and spoke. "That's something else I think Hannah would really enjoy."

_**Author's Note: I've been waiting for just the right time to bring Kelly up. Considering she is pretty much the reason Tali and Shep are together, she deserves recognition for it. And I am still taking suggestions for general details over PM.**_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Double the fun

The following day.

"You two are getting married?! Holy crap, Jack! That is the second coolest thing I've ever heard! When? Where? Damn, I need to start looking for flowers, decorations. Tali's dress! Oh! And the cake! It has to be tiered. Chocolate. At least five feet tall."

"Mom! Pump your brakes. Man, sometimes I think I just ought to stop giving you updates. I don't know if your heart can take much more."

"Oh, shut up you! This is all so exciting for me. In just the last two months, I've met my son's better half, gotten him back from oblivion, find out I'm going to be a grandmother, TWICE, and now you tell me you're getting married to the sweetest girl. All of this just makes your old mother walk on clouds, boy. Let me enjoy it," Hannah protested.

It was Tali's turn to talk. "We saved the best part. We have names for the kids now."

What followed was squeal so high pitched, it could have broken glass if they were near any.

"Mom!"

"Sorry, son." She listened intently, as she had it in her mind already that as soon as this call was done, she was going to go baby shopping.

"Our boy's name will be David Rael in honor of Jack's commanding officer and my father," Tali said.

"Admiral Anderson was a good man. Jack always told me he was like a father figure for him over the time they worked together," Hannah explained.

Tali continued, "Our girl will be named Mira Jane after the person responsible for bringing Jack back when the first Normandy was destroyed…"

Hannah cut her off. "And the person who is probably the main reason he lived to be hero." Hannah held back a sentimental tear. "I think you hit the nail on the head with those."

Jack took over. "Now Mom, I know you're probably go out a buy a whole bunch of crap right away. Just a heads up, Maelon is going to be growing them a bit into their youth. Probably up to about three years old. He's going to keep them in the tanks for awhile, but their growth won't be accelerated like mine was."

"Three year old clothes and toys. Got it."

"Wow… You really are looking forward to all this aren't you Hannah?" Tali teased.

"You better damn well believe it!" Hannah responded enthusiastically.

Tali kept with the teasing. "I figured you would develop some kind of complex at the idea of having grandchildren, considering you seem so protective of your age."

"Stuff it, girl. I know I'm old." Hannah bit back.

Tali and Jackson both had a good little chuckle at Hannah's expense. "Ok Mom. I'm going to let you get to your shopping spree. We have a another call to make."

The call ended with that, and Tali brought up some info on her omni-tool. She had dug up some info on Kelly after yesterday's conversation. She found that Kelly had set up shop on the Citadel as a professional psychologist helping people with post traumatic stress disorder from the war. She dialed in a number she found for Kelly.

"Dr. Hannigan's office."

"Hello. I'd like to speak with Miss Hannigan please. I'm an old friend."

"Right away, ma'am."

After a moment, the line came back on. "This is Dr. Hannigan."

In as cheerful a voice as she could muster, Tali said, "Why hello there, Kelly."

"Kelly? Who is this?"

"Don't play silly with me. Its Tali!"

Reminiscent of the one they had heard from Hannah not long before, Kelly let out an ear drum shattering squeal out of pure joy. "OH MY GOD! Tali! How long has it been?"

"Just as bubbly as ever I see." Tali said playfully. "It was good to hear you had slipped away from Cerberus when they raided the Citadel."

"Yeah, that was a scary situation… Wait. How did you know about that? And how did you find me? The only person I told was…"

Jack jumped in just then. "Good morning, Miss Chambers."

This time, Tali and Jack were smart enough to cover their ears. "Commander Shepard?! The whole galaxy thinks you're dead. Details! I want to know everything."

Jack smiled a bit. "Well, Kelly. Its long story, with a couple of hitches in it. If you've got the time, we can go over it all."

Without missing a beat, Kelly called over her office intercom, "Rita, reschedule all today's appointments. I need the entire day open to deal with personal matter that just popped up."

"That was easy," Tali said.

In her normally bubbly tone of voice, Kelly replied, "Hey, when you run your own gig, you can do things your own way. So, you have some place down there you want to meet up, or can you make it up to the Citadel?"

They arranged for Kelly to hop a shuttle and come down to the Shepard house in Louisiana. A much easier trip than it used to be, considering the Citadel was now gravitationally locked in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth at the exact opposite Lagrange Point from the moon. After the war, even when repairs were done, the Council couldn't figure out how to get the station mobile again. Harbinger offered to help, but they just left it there.

When Kelly arrived at the house, she was greeted at the door by Attica, who was now hooked in to the house's security system. "Welcome to the Shepard family home. Please identify."

After being crewmates with Legion, seeing a Pyro unit in Tali's home was not such a shock for Kelly. "Dr. Felicia Hannigan. Personal acquaintance to Commander Shepard."

"I am sorry. I have no record of Shepard-Commander…"

Jack rounded the corner and started down the stairs just then. "Attica. She's ok."

Almost out of disbelief with equal parts joy, Kelly gasped hard and threw both hands over her mouth. "Commander? It really is you!"

"Indeed it is. I got a third shot at life, and like my mother told me, I have to make the third time the charm." Jackson said. "Come on. Let's sit down to some lunch and talk it all out. Tali's been waiting for you."

They sat down at a table on the deck in the backyard. Kelly was so amped up to see him again. "My god! Everyone thought you had died. We at least knew you accomplished your mission when the Reapers started helping us."

"Yeah, about that dying thing. I'll have Tali give you the rundown." He opened his omni-tool and had it access the house's intercom. "Hey you. Our guest is here."

"I'll be right down."

A moment later, Tali came through the back door. Kelly noticed her out of the corner of her eye, but didn't pay any mind. She hadn't seen Tali out of her suit yet, and while she had heard of the Quarians being able to be out of them now, somewhere in the back of her mind, she still expected to see her in it.

Tali sat down in front of Kelly, and for the first time in her life, Kelly was at a complete loss for words. Aside from the fact that she wasn't expecting to see her like this, Kelly was completely mesmerized by how cute she thought Tali was.

Jack caught on to her right away and figured he'd run with it a little. "Cat got your tongue, Miss Chambers?" he said playfully. "Tali tells me the rest of the Normandy crew responded the same way when they all saw her for the first time."

After a goodhearted giggle, Tali proceeded to tell Kelly all the details.

"Twins?! That's awesome!" Kelly barked in excitement.

"You should have heard Admiral Shepard's response when we told her about it. The woman just about lost it," Tali quipped. "But, hey. There's another reason why I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh? What's up?"

"Jack finally told me that you were responsible for us even being together, and since we're getting married, we want you to be there with us." Tali explained.

Kelly head tilted and she smiled real big. "Aww, you guys! That is so cute. Of course I'll be there!"

She leaned over and hugged Jackson. "Thanks, Kelly. That means a lot to both of us. Hell, you'll get to meet my mother."

"Mother of the hero that saved the galaxy. If pride were fuel, hers could probably gas up the Normandy all the way to Rannoch," Kelly joked. Her eyes narrowed suddenly and she spoke again. "Does the Council know you've been brought back?"

Jackson grimaced a bit with that question. "I've actually been trying to keep a low profile. I'm really enjoying the peace and quiet since no one really knows yet."

Kelly nodded in agreement. "I can't say I blame you. Being a hero of your magnitude would carry untold fame, and fame can always be a double edged sword."

"Yeah, not mention I don't think Alcatraz and Attica would take kindly to us being tailed by paparazzi." Tali added.

They all laughed it up and enjoyed lunch together.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Family Time!

It had been a week since Maelon began growing the Shepard twins. He was ecstatic to be a part of this new, groundbreaking procedure and absolutely could not wait to see its end result. He spent every waking moment capturing and studying all the data he could possibly glean from it all. His mind was set ablaze by the sheer magnitude of how this experiment could impact the galaxy. He didn't care for fame or fortune. But just the same as when he worked on curing the Genophage, he was simply enamored with concept of using his brain power to help people.

"Commander Shepard. Its Maelon."

"What's up, professor? Did you run into any roadblocks?"

"Nothing I could not overcome, Commander. I simply wanted to pass along a report on the growth progress."

Shepard smiled. "Go right on, doc."

"Certainly. Well, I wanted to let you know that I had initially run into a snag in the process. I was having trouble figuring out exactly how I was going to grow them past the infant stage, until I contacted your old Krogan colleague, Urdnot Grunt. Normally, he would have ignored a request for information from a Salarian, but he holds respect for my work on reversing the effects of the Genophage for his people. Anyhow, I'm trailing. I spoke with him in at length about his development in Okeer's tank. Oddly enough, Okeer had actually imprinted vast and thorough details about his process of creating Grunt into his memories. No doubt a failsafe designed for Grunt to continue his own lineage should he be unsuccessful in procuring a mate. And I'm trailing again. So, I called to let you know that I believe I can now fulfill your request to grow the twins to a certain age."

Shepard's smile got bigger and Tali did a silly little 'Yay! No diapers!' victory dance. "That sounds great, professor," he said.

Maelon continued. "With you, I used the knowledge from Javik to copy your mind as it was. In this case, I can directly imprint certain behavioral patterns as Okeer had done with Grunt. The ability to walk and talk. Intellect, et cetera. This technique can apparently be used to create any kind of person."

Tali chose then to speak her piece. "Well, I think imprinting basic abilities and the capacity for intelligence is a good idea. However, I think we should leave personality alone. That way, they can still grow to become their own kind of person."

Shepard nodded. "I agree. That way, both of them still maintain their own free will."

"Aboslutely," Maelon replied. "While this process could indeed create another super soldier like Grunt, I understand that as their parents, you would indeed want to maintain the ability to teach them as they grow older."

Tali smirked a bit. "Yeah, I definitely want to be able to impart values and discipline as we go. Don't get me wrong. I love Grunt to death. But he was built from the ground up to be a constant warrior. That may be a Krogan warlord's idea of the perfect person, but I think Jack and I see things a bit differently for how we want our kids to grow up."

"Completely understandable," Maelon said. "Okay, so you know, this is how I am going to apply this technique. I will imprint who the two of you are as their parents, who they are and how they were born, and basic life skills."

Satisfied, Jack said, "Perfect! Get to it, doc. And let us know how it all plays out. Call me if you have anything more. Oh, and Tali and my mother wanted to know if it were possible to birth them on a specific date."

"Things are going well enough that I could more than likely make that happen."

Smile widen ever larger, Jack replied, "Great. Can you shoot for the 11th of April, Earth time?"

Maelon rubbed his chin and looked over at a calendar . "Hmm. Yes. I think three more weeks would indeed be sufficient enough time to gather data."

"Awesome. Thanks, Maelon."

They ended the call and Maelon immediately re-engaged "Hamster on coffee" mode.

Tali looked at Jackson with a look of pure joy. The thought of them being parents was now foremost, and she loved every second of it. "Celebratory sexy time?" she suggested.

With a grin that stretched from ear to ear, he replied, "Damn straight! Go get set up. I'm going to call Mom and pass on the details."

Admiral Shepard, who normally hated anything that reminded her of the fact that she was getting older, was verily absorbing the fact that she was shortly to become a grandmother. In a week's time, she had bought everything from personalized toys to nearly full wardrobes for both children. She had also taken to the idea of being called Nanna Hannah, just because it rhymed.

"Good news, Mom. Maelon is on track to be able to pull the twins on the 11th."

"Oh, is that so?" she said dryly. "Hmm… Well, excuse me for a second." She covered the receiver and let out a wail that Jack could still hear, albeit muffled. "Well, damn. There's a crack in my office window now."

Jack couldn't help but let out a good hardy laugh about that. Okay, I just wanted to pass that to you."

"Alright, boy. Now I have to go find someone to fix this…"

"See you in three weeks, Ma." Jackson hung up and returned his thoughts to his woman.

He went upstairs to find her waiting patiently on the massive bed. "Mom approves of the time line."

"Good," Tali replied. "Now come here and give me something that I can approve of."

**~~~TASTEFUL FADE TO BLACK~~~**

Tali stood up from the bed and nearly fell to the floor right away. "Damn, cowboy! I can hardly walk," she said through a grin.

"Let that be a lesson to you," Jack said in a mock serious tone. "The words 'harder' and 'faster' should not be used as many times in rapid succession as you just did."

"Point taken," she replied as she hobbled toward her clothes. They then began the process of childproofing the Shepard house.

Three weeks of rabid anticipation came and went. Tali called up Hannah and invited Kelly to lab.

"Admiral Shepard; mother of the legend. It's an honor."

"Dr. Hannigan. Or would you prefer Kelly? I hear tell you had a hand in my baby getting together with the love of his life," Hannah said, somewhat dryly.

"You can say that." Kelly replied. She changed her tone to her bubbly self. "Oohh! Isn't this whole twins thing just so exciting!"

In an instant, the elder Shepard's personality seemed to flip and manifest into one that nearly mirrored Kelly's. "Oh my god! This is all just so great!"

There was an air of absolute excitement among them. The usually reserved and composed Admiral Shepard was reduced to a giggly school girl amidst all the talk of her boy getting marrying and having children. She and Kelly hit it off right away and started discussing plans for the wedding.

"What do you think about a five foot tall, three tier cake?" Hannah asked.

"It absolutely HAS to be chocolate or it doesn't count!" Kelly replied, eyes twinkling.

"You know, since you were instrumental in getting them together, I think you should Tali's Maid of Honor." Hannah suggested.

Kelly was nearly a case of spontaneous human combustion when she heard that. She giggled loud and nodded profusely.

Tali and Jack stood off to the side, amused to no end at the interaction between Hannah and Kelly. "Those two certainly didn't waste any time. It's like being a fiery redhead automatically connects you on a deeper level to other redheads." Jack quipped.

After a short while, Maelon called for everyone to go into to the lab where the birthing chambers were. With giddy anticipation, they all went in. As Maelon drained the tanks, they all took their first glimpse of the twins.

Mira was a pretty little thing. She looked exactly like a younger version of how Tali remembered her mother. She also had Tali's same color hair and skin tone. The difference that stood out is that she had human hands and legs. David was quite the opposite. While he had his father's skin, he also had Quarian physical features.

Hannah, Tali, and Kelly all went on in rambling conversation with the words "adorable" and "handsome" each being used a few times. Maelon and Jackson simply stood their admiring how well it had gone.

When the tanks had completely drained out, the twins took their first step, their first breath, and opened their eyes.

David looked up and saw Tali first, and from Maelon's imprints, instantly recognized her. "Mom?"

Mira saw Jackson and called out, "Daddy!"

The next few minutes were occupied with the frantic coughing up of chamber fluid, followed by hugs, kisses, and Hannah getting her newly christened grandchildren dressed.

Then, it was introduction time. Jackson, now with Mira sitting up on his shoulders, spoke to his twins. "Kids, this is my mother and your grandmother."

Hannah, who was holding David on her hip, interjected, "Nanna Hannah if you please."

Jackson and Tali chuckled a bit at the elder Shepard's self-imposed title.

"And this bubbly red bunny is Felicia," Tali added.

The redhead pulled Mira down and gave her a big hug. "It's Kelly to you. Aunt Kelly," she corrected.

Suddenly, a river of tears began to flow from Hannah's face. David reacted by putting his arms around her. "Nanna, why are you crying? Did I do something wrong?"

"Oh no, baby boy. Nanna is happier than she's ever been before." she said as she tried to fight back the tears.

"Maelon! You, my friend, are a genius," Jackson said, praising the man responsible for his new family.

"Thank you. With this success, I think we have the means to bring joy to many families the galaxy over!" Maelon was more than gratified with his work.

After another hour or so of testing and observation for any possible issues, the Shepard clan all left together to celebrate three birthdays.

_**Author's Note: It was suggested that I have the kids both resemble and differ from each parent in some way. I was originally going to have David as a straight Quarian child and Mira as a human, but I like the diversity idea. Even though it wasn't put this way when suggested, I realized that doing it that way makes it so they can each relate to both parents.**_


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Extended Family

"Normandy crew: ATTEEEEEEEEENTION!"

"To all ye who shall be present here; Greetings! We hereby repose special trust and confidence in the fidelity and abilities of Mira Jane Shepard and David Rael Shepard and do hereby promote them to the status of Honorary Members of the crew of SSV Normandy SR-2 to the grade as such on this day, 18 April of the year 2187."

David, dressed in a downsized sky blue version of Admiral Raan's Quarian dress uniform, and Mira, in an Alliance dress uniform, were presented over the QEC conference to all of the Shepards' crew and friends.

When Alcatraz when was finished speaking, all the female members of the crew all went into the obligatory "Awww" phase. Admiral Raan, observing from her QEC chamber on Rannoch, burst into hysteric tears of joy. Everyone else stood by for the impending explanation. Jackson, though knowing he would later regret the decision, had Maelon explain to everyone how he did it.

After Maelon was done, Tali stepped out in front of her family and spoke to everyone. "Everyone here is also invited to our wedding." There was an eruption of cheering and applause.

Gabby, holding her new son Andrew, was the first actually speak. "Oh my god! Is the cake going to be chocolate?"

Garrus twitched his mandibles and added his two cents worth. "Will there be cheesecake and Guinness Dark?"

Campbell, now a Corporal, simply day dreamed of being swept off her feet by some tall, dark and handsome knight in shining Ajax Armor.

Joker, living up to his moniker added, "Wow! Now there's definitely going to be a lot more fu… Ow! What was that for EDI?"

The big group of friends and family all stayed on the line and chitchatted for a good hour or so.

After the show was over and everyone had gone back to their day, Attica pulled aside Jackson and Tali.

"Shepard-Commander."

"It's just Jackson, Attica. Or Jack if you prefer."

"Acknowledged. Jackson, I wished to speak with regarding the progression of the Geth as a society."

That piqued Tali's interested. "Oh? What's up, Attica?"

"Since the birth of the Shepard Twins and their subsequent addition into your family, Alcatraz and I have been in contact with the Primary Consensus." Picking up on the raised eye brow from Jackson and the confusion on Tali's face, Attica continued on with an explanation. "The Primary Consensus is what the Geth call our fledgling governing body. We have attempted to establish a physical form of government on Rannoch to mirror those of other civilizations." Tali and Jack took that in and didn't require more explaining. It all made perfect sense.

Attica continued. "The Primary Consensus has suggested that the Geth as a people should at least attempt to branch out in ways that further mirror Organic civilizations. After postulating on this with thoughts added after the birth of your twins, Alcatraz and I suggested that children be added to Geth society. The Primary Consensus agreed."

Eye brows hit the stratosphere and faces contorted beyond recognition out of sheer confusion.

"Whoa… I don't even… How would you accomplish this?" Tali said.

"Much the same way Organics do, only with Synthetics in mind. We would create a new mobile platform, but its thoughts would be a 'blank slate' as it were. We would program the algorithms of its thought matrix to be an amalgamation of the parental units' thought patterns, but leave all knowledge out. Doing so would create a totally new mind based on that of both parents, but free to learn life from its own experiences and from input from the parents. Similarly to the way Organic children would."

Still confused, but with a least a little better understanding, Jackson spoke. "The Geth really are taking being free seriously. There's so much going on for you now that you are recognized as a race."

Tali, who understand fully the technical side of Attica's explanation, was still curious. "Why did you choose now to tell us?"

Attica's "eye brow" plates rose up. "Alcatraz and I have volunteered to be parental units for the initial phase of study of the concept by the Consensus."

Tali and Jack both smiled. "Cool! Geth kiddies. Who'd have thought that back in the days of the Migrant Fleet," Tali said.

Jackson thought to himself that it would a pretty good thing. If Mira and David had a hard time integrating into the public, they would always have Geth friends.

Attica continued, "Alcatraz received technical specifications and blueprints for a new prototype mobile frame from Admiral Xen and the Primary Consensus. This prototype is designed to grow as an Organic child would as time passed by gradually taking in material to add to its frame."

Minds were officially blown.

"Leave it to Admiral Xen to be a part in some Frankenstein experiment," Jack said jokingly.

"Admiral Xen's partner, the Prime unit known as Flemeth, has also volunteered. She had chosen to partner her thought patterns with those of a Juggernaut class platoon commander unit that identifies as Cain." Attica said.

"That ought to be interesting." Jack said. "A soldier mixed with a neurotic psycho science bitch."

"Also, to further mirror your situation, we also suggested, and the Consensus agreed, that we produce both a male and female for study of the concept. Flemeth and Cain's twins will stay on Rannoch amongst the Consensus and the Conclave. Ours will live here on Earth with us to create data of Geth children in a different environment. Alcatraz will begin construction of the Twins immediately."

The Shepard clan was growing, and neither Tali nor Jackson were against the idea. Hannah was confused, but consented to the notion of her babies having in house playmates to grow up with. "Aunt" Kelly, who held love for all races, including the Geth, was all over the concept.

_**Author's Note: A short chapter, I'll admit. But this one was a combination of suggestions from PMs, and I had to give those dedicated fans what they wanted. And I didn't want the last chapter to run to far beyond my usual chapter length. It already ran a bit long as it was.**_


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The Big Day!

After months of meticulous planning, the day of Jackson and Tali's wedding had finally arrived. Tali, Jackson, and Nanna Hannah had talked it over thoroughly and agreed to have the wedding on Tali's birthday in August. This agreement held a twofold purpose. One being that it would permanently give Tali much brighter thoughts to think about on her birthday than the fact that it was also the anniversary of her father's death. Secondly, and this one was big for Hannah, it was to mean double the pain if Jackson ever forgot it! Crafty women folk, those two…

The Wedding Party was all gathered. Kelly was Tali's Maid of Honor, with Ashley, Gabby, and Liara as Bride's Maids. Admiral Raan was there to give Tali away in the absence of her father. Garrus, Jackson's best friend for so long, was his Best Man. Vega, Cortez, and Joker were the rest of the Groom's Men. David and Alcatraz's son, Quentin, were the ring bearers. Mira and Attica's daughter Elmina served as flower girls.

Alcatraz provided armed overwatch from outside the building in case anyone wanted to get testy and try something. Attica was greeting guests and she was also plugged into the building's security system.

The full Rogues' Gallery of Shepard's friends and former teammates were all invited. Attica was announcing their arrivals at the door.

"Arriving: First Lieutenant Jennifer Naught of Alliance Biotic Training Command."

"The Psychotic Biotic is here! There's an open bar, right?"

"Arriving: Kasumi Goto. Head of N7 Shadow operative group.

"Hey, Shep! Great that you actually listened to me and Kelly and made your move."

"Arriving: Urdnot Wrex and Bakara. Clan leaders of Tuchanka's ruling party."

"Good to see you finally getting some peace Shepard."

"Arriving: Admiral Steven Hackett. Alliance Fifth Fleet.

"Damn good to see you alive and well. You made all of humanity proud, Commander."

Jackson personally greeted Hackett. With a hardy handshake, he replied, "Just doing my job, sir."

"Arriving: Tevos Rahzeel. Asari representative to the Citadel Council."

And just like that, the magic was gone. Jackson knew it was only a matter of time before the Council got wind of his return. He had hoped they would at least let him have this day.

He made eye contact and said very dryly, "Councilor."

"Commander. We had heard many rumors, but I wished to see it with my own eyes," she said. "My fellow Council members and I wish to speak with you."

With a snide, almost annoyed tone, Jack responded, "And you really couldn't wait until tomorrow? Or even like later in the day? You just had to crash the party…"

Through an earpiece that couldn't be seen, Alcatraz communicated with Jackson. "Shepard-Commander, you are visibly shaken by this guest before you. Do you wish me to terminate?"

"Stand down, Alcatraz. I got this one."

The Asari councilor showed a confused look on her face seeing Shepard essentially talking to himself.

"Madame Councilor. My security detail has a Javelin sniper rifle trained in on your head right now. He requests that you please proceed to a seat right away or remove yourself from these proceedings," Jackson said in a stern tone.

Councilor Tevos raised her hands in admitted defeat. "I did not wish to cause an incident, Commander. Please, come to the Council's meeting chamber at your earliest convenience." She took her seat and was not to be heard from again for the rest of the day.

All invited guests had arrived, and were seated. Jackson looked over the crowd and saw all the familiar faces. EDI. Engineer Ken Donnelly with his son Andrew. Lieutenant Greg Adams. Jacob and Dr Bryn Taylor. Kahlee Sanders along with Ensigns Sabrina Rodriguez, Jason Prangley, and David Archer from the newly rebuilt Grissom Academy. Urdnot Grunt. Justicar Samara and her daughter and new Justicar recruit, Felare. Orianna Lawson. The Queen of Omega, Aria T'Loak. Samantha Traynor. Dr Karin Chakwas. Diana Allers. Corporal Sarah Campbell. Bethany Westmoreland. Adam Copeland. Lieutenant Steve Cortez. Newly promoted C-Sec Executor, Armando-Owen Bailey. New C-Sec recruit Kolyat Krios. Dr Ann Bryson. Zaeed Massani. Turian Primarch Adrian Victus. Dr Chloe Michel. Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani. Admirals Han'Gerral, Zal'Koris, and Daro'Xen. Veetor'Nara. Flemeth and Cain, with their Geth children Yavana and Zane. Harbinger's avater. And front row center were Javik, Maelon, and Admiral Shepard.

Notable in absence were Admiral David Anderson, Miranda Lawson, Admiral Rael'Zorah, Nyreen Kandros, Thane Krios, Major Kaiden Alenko, Dr Mordin Solus, Nihlus Kryik, Corporal Richard Jenkins, Senior Chief Jane Shepard, and all of the crew from the Normandy SR-1 that didn't make it. They were all given spiritual invites.

When everyone was accounted for, they began the ceremony to bond the galaxy's greatest hero to ever live with his perpetual love.

As Tali made her way down the aisle, a ghostly silence swept through the air. All eyes were on her, and she commenced with what would be the happiest day for the rest of her life.

_**Author's Note: Another short one, but it has a point. And okay, so maybe I took the prison theme of the Shepard Geths a little too far with Quentin and Elmina (google San Quentin and Elmina Castle for details). However, bear in mind that law enforcement was my trained specialty in the military and I continue in it now as a civilian. Also, note the references for the other Geth kids. Yavana was Flemeth's other daughter in Dragon Age lore. Zane is rather obscure. In Marvel's MC2 continuity, Zane Yama Marko (known by codename J2) was Juggernaut Cain Marko's son.**_


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Play Time Has Ended

Rather than take a honeymoon and leave the kids, Jack and Tali decided instead to take a family vacation. They had taken the twins on a whirlwind tour of the worlds they hailed from. Both parents thought it would be a good opportunity for Mira and David to learn about history.

While still on Earth, Jackson had taken them to the sites of many pivotal battles throughout Humanity's history. They also saw sites of famous (and infamous) events, such as assassinations, signings of peace treaties, and locations where major discoveries were found. They even went to the namesake prisons of the Shepard Geths.

After taking in the sights on Earth, they went to Rannoch and met up with their great aunt. Shala'Raan was more than thrilled to see Mira and David again. The elder Quarian was enamored with the fact that she was able to have family again. So much so, that it didn't bother her when Tali officially resigned her position as a sitting member of the Admiralty Board. And despite Xen's constant attempts to glean information about the process of the twins' birth, Jack and Tali verily enjoyed being able go to Rannoch and actually take in the Quarian home world without having to fight for their lives while there. Raan showed them historical sites from Quarian archives as well as all the new things that were being built up since Zal'Koris and his Department of Interior began zoning.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Their vacation time had wound down, and the Shepard clan was on their way back to Earth. Jackson had very much enjoyed all the free time he was afforded since his rebirth, particularly all his one on one time with Tali, but a part of him deep inside yearned to get into some kind of work.

Mira and David were asleep in their shuttle seats, so Tali went and sat next to Jack. "I know you had said you wanted to get back to work, but you could just stay at home with the twins for as long as you like," Tali assured him. "The accounts Liara set up for us on her network could easily last us the next ten years, maybe even longer."

"I know. But I've always been kind of a busy body. Ever since I started working as a teenager," Jack said. Then, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh crap… I almost forgot about Tevos." Jackson knew that the Council would not attempt to contact him directly so soon after his encounter with Tevos at the wedding. But he also knew he couldn't avoid their reach forever."

"Damn, that's right. Well, they don't plan on moving the Citadel any time soon. You could always go see what they want on any random day."

Jack slumped in his shuttle seat and crossed his arms. "True. I just really didn't want to have to deal with them again. They are always so uptight and never really think about anything but the good of their own races," he spat. "And let's not forget how much crap they gave me over the years while I was busting my chops trying to save them all, Tevos in particular."

Tali put a hand on his shoulder. "Still, we both know they would just keep hounding you until you finally went and saw them." Tali's infernal logic earned an annoyed grunt from Jack, but he knew she was right.

Reluctantly, Jackson took the short trip up to the Citadel the day after they got home. He figured there would be no point in calling ahead, as the Council would no doubt be informed the moment he arrived on the station. And sure enough, they were in the meeting chamber waiting for him.

Rather than hold this meeting in the open air council chamber for all the public to see, they opted instead to do this behind closed doors. Tevos greeted him at the door. "Commander. Thank you for coming to see us. Please, we have some things we would like to discuss. Sit."

Jackson had a particular distaste for Tevos as not only was she always exceedingly cold toward him, but she had chosen to hold off on Asari support for his efforts during the war until the last possible moment. And that had only come when the Asari's home system was in danger. He saw that as extremely ungrateful considering he sacrificed a third of Earth's military power to pull all of the council's collective ass out of the fire when they were being attacked by Sovereign aboard the Destiny Ascension. There was also the incident at the end of the coup attempt where had to save them from being turned over to Cerberus.

"This had better be good. My kids are waiting for me to take them to a movie," he spat, venom dripping from his words directed toward Tevos.

Councilor Valern, the Salarian representative who owed Shepard a personal debt for helping save him from Kai Leng during the raid, chose then to interject his piece. "I must apologize, Commander. I understand that it was indeed in bad taste for her to approach you directly on the day of your bonding, but rest assured, what we wanted to discuss is certainly of importance."

Sparatus, the Turian councilor and close personal friend to Primarch Victus, was next. "I'll not bore you false pageantry and get straight to the point. Commander, we wish to extend you an invitation to rejoin the ranks of the Spectres. Not only that, but we also want you to consider taking the newly created position of Spectre General, with direct command authority over all active Spectre agents."

Jackson was caught a bit off guard, but he was halfway expecting that.

"That's a gracious offer, councilor," he said, "But I would have to talk it over with the family."

Tevos, sensing he would not respond well to her, peered over to Valern to add the next part.

Valern continued. "There was also something else we wanted to ask you. You are by far the greatest hero civilization has ever and probably will ever have. You are a symbol. With that understood, we would also like for you to consider filling the vacancy left when you executed the traitor Udina."

Mind… Blown.

"While I admit, the idea of being Spectre General is appealing; I think that would be a very difficult position to hold simultaneously with a seat on the Council," he replied. "Also, I'm definitely _NOT_ a politician. Personally, I think politicians are the weeds of the galaxy. However, I will accept, but I would have someone sit in my place while I'm in the field. I believe that if I were to nominate someone, being the symbol that I am as you put it, the choice would be instantly validated in the eyes of the public."

Before he even finished his statement, Jack could see the look of unease creep onto the usually stone cold face of Tevos. He took some pleasure in seeing that she was squirming inside. He could see that Valern and Sparatus had no qualm with his idea, but he knew Tevos would be against it. She was outgunned though.

Attempting to keep the spite out of her voice, Tevos finally spoke. "Well, commander, I believe that all depends completely upon your choice."

Despite her attempts to hide it, Sparatus could sense the disdain in her voice and body language. He would keep it to himself for now though, as he had pretty much decided he would side with Shepard in just about anything he suggested. "Who did you have in mind, Shepard?" he asked.

With an unerring veil of professionalism, Jackson stood and spoke. "This war we just fought was grueling. There were countless deaths. Untold destruction. But we made it happen. And I must say that we likely would not have been able to pull it off if not for the help from one specific source." He braced himself as he knew it would be very difficult to contain his laughter when he saw the reaction from Tevos when he finished his statement. "Without the aid of the Quarians, and by extension, the Geth, all of us would be raw material for new Reapers right now." Tevos couldn't hide the look of disgust, as predicted, but Jack held himself fast.

Valern, the most logical mind of the three, levied his thoughts. "Yes. I have read through all the reports from all sectors of the war. The Quarians' fleet was instrumental in the success of a great many aspects of the fighting. And by comparison of overall race population, they lost more of their own people than any other race did. And the Geth were invaluable as additions to ground forces on all fronts."

Jack continued. "I would like to nominate the person with the most brilliant mind for leadership. Shala'Raan, former sitting member of the Migrant Fleet's Admiralty Board, now head of Rannoch's Department of Agriculture."

Sparatus and Valern looked at each and nodded in agreement. Tevos could no longer contain herself. "Surely, we cannot be considering allowing a Quarian on to the Council?"

Jack, hearing that bit of vitriol, could no longer keep himself at bay. Only now it was anger rather than holding in a laugh. "You ungrateful, uppity, snobbish bitch! I am absolutely sick of you looking down that smug Asari nose of yours on other races!"

Rage had taken his voice as he let out years of frustration. "The Morning War was three hundred years ago, and yet you are still holding that over the Quarians' heads? While you were alive to witness it, none of the Quarians on Rannoch right now were there back then. Quarians live about as long as Humans. At most, one hundred and twenty years. You would honestly sit here and try to block progress because of your own personal dislike of that situation? The sins of their fathers should NOT continue to revisit the sons! Come on now! They have not only made peace with the Geth, but live along side them day to day on Rannoch. Their Conclave and the Geth's Primary Consensus have been working hand in hand to rebuild and improve Rannoch since the Reaper war ended. And let us also not forget that you owe me twice over for saving your ass."

He stopped momentarily to take a breath and saw that Tevos was caught in a "deer in the headlights" moment. He quirked a devilish grin and motioned to the other councilors. "I can tell by their reaction that your compatriots seem to disagree with you, Madame Councilor. Maybe they would agree with me if I were to suggest it was time you stepped down..."

With the grin still populating his face, Jack crossed his arms and put a hand on his chin. "But who would we get to replace you? Hmm. Maybe the Queen of Omega would have a clearer view. Or possibly Matriarch Aethyta or Justicar Samara? Or perhaps it should be a maiden that hasn't been around long enough to develop such prejudices. I could always get Dr T'Soni to think about it."

Jackson was enjoying every moment of this now with her there squirming at his tirade. He was finally getting it off his chest, and he could see Valern and Sparatus were taking some pleasure in it as well.

Tevos, knowing full well she was defeated, had to think very carefully how she was going to go about with a response. This was a fight in which she had an ice cube's chance in a reactor core of getting her personal view across. "Very well, commander. Since my fellow councilors seem to think that it would be for the betterment and further progression of the galactic community, I will accept your nomination of Shala'Raan as well as your appointment as Spectre General."

"There!" Jack said. "I knew you would finally see reason."

All three councilors stood from the table and the middle of it opened to reveal a Quantum Entanglement Communicator setup. Shepard input the information to contact Rannoch with a priority message from the Council directly to Raan. He also forwarded the active call to Tali's portable QEC with a one way signal for viewing.

Raan was sitting in on a meeting with the Conclave when the QEC hail went through. Being marked as priority, she had no choice but to accept the call with the entire Conclave there. When she got on the line, she was more than a little surprised to see Jackson. "Shepard? I don't understand… Why are you contacting me from the Council's channel?"

The three council members stepped into view behind him and he spoke. "Shala'Raan, as Spectre General and its newest member, I make this call on behalf of the Citadel Council to extend their invitation for you to take up my seat among them as acting Councilor in my absence."

Everyone in the Quarians' government building instantly erupted in applause. Han'Gerral simply walked up next her, put a hand on her shoulder, and nodded. They all knew this meant that the Quarians were now officially accepted back into the galactic community.

On her end, Tali had dropped to her knees out of shock, then she wiped away a single tear that formed out of pride and joy when Raan accepted.

_**Author's Note: I always did have a bad taste for Councilor Tevos. To me, her character always seemed to be more of a cold self centered bitch than anyone else in the series. Take that, you uppity blue heifer! And the position of Spectre General is a VERY obscure reference to an 80's band that made two of my favorite songs of all time for the soundtrack of one of my favorite movies of all time.**_


	21. Chapter 21

Final Chapter: Back to work Jack my boy!

Jackson, while still not thrilled about having to work with Tevos, quickly took to his position as Spectre General. While he was granted a whole new rank with a new insignia to match, he would continue to use the title Commander. It almost felt like his first name now.

His first order of business was to see to it that all his Spectre agents got the best and brightest to back them. It was seemingly long standing tradition that Spectres operated alone. However, given his personal experience aboard the Normandy, Jack knew full well that no matter how good one man is, he's that much better with good people helping him. As such, he used his newfound authority as Spectre General and sitting council member to grant Spectre agents the ability to officially deputize their own "Spectre Support Crew". In doing so, the crew was essentially granted a limited scope of Spectre privileges, which included access to the best equipment that money could buy to better support their Spectre. While the idea was already in affect spiritually, given how the Alliance allowed him continued use of the Normandy and her crew, this act made it official.

After it became official, Jackson ran his idea by Admiral Hackett. While the admiral didn't really like the idea of giving up good people, he also realized it was for the greater good. Especially when he considered that it was the brainchild of the best soldier Humanity ever produced. Leadership among the other Council races also understood it was something they wouldn't be able to fight.

Jackson wasted no time in streamlining the Spectres for better deployment. He wanted to set up training operations for support personnel and for Spectres who just wanted to get some cross training. He tapped Joker to be his head trainer for a new crop of pilots to serve under his Spectres. Joker, along with EDI, began setting up the best flight training and simulations for this new "Wing Ops" training branch.

When Ashley got word of the new regulation, the first thing she did was turn to Vega, her lead trainer and Executive Officer in Eden Prime's militia. Together, they stood up "Titan Ops", a training cell for brute force and infantry tactics.

Kasumi Goto, who was the lead trainer for N7 Shadow operatives, was deputized by Jondum Bau, the Salarian Spectre that spent most of his career tracking her. They held deep respect for each other, and worked well in creating the "Ninja Ops" branch for clandestine operations.

Jack spoke at length with the Council to identify the most well versed biotic in the ranks of the Spectres. Expecting an Asari Matriarch with centuries as a Spectre under her belt, Jackson was surprised when he was lead to an Asari maiden named Jamie Huebert.

Agent Huebert was raised on Earth by her human father Steven after her mother was killed by xenophobic Asari who rejected her bonding a human so soon. Huebert was born in 2158, just after Humanity had arrived in the galactic community. Though young, she showed an air about herself that many Asari didn't achieve until they were at least 600-700. And being raised by her human parent, she did not develop the arrogance and penchant for looking down her nose at others that had become a stereotype of Asari. She was actually very humble, almost to a fault.

At the age of 30, barely even a teenager by Asari standards, she was the youngest Asari to ever be named a Spectre. The Council did so because she showed the potential to be the most powerful biotic in the known galaxy, and Jackson wanted to harness that. He paired Agent Huebert with an old friend, now going by her new legal name, Lieutenant Junior Grade Jennifer Naught. After finding out Shepard's first name and fully accepting her role in the Alliance, Jenn stopped going by "Jack" out of respect.

The "Psychotic Biotic" as she labeled herself, was the most powerful human biotic ever born. Hackett had made her lead instructor of Alliance Biotic Training Command (BIOCOM), the successor program to the defunct BAaT, at Grissom Academy and her students proved to be huge assets as support for ground troops during the war. Hackett didn't like that BIOCOM was losing Jenn, but it made him feel better about it to know that she was being replaced by her brightest student and now a decorated war veteran, Ensign Jason Prangley.

Jenn and Jamie were slow to catch on to each other, as their personalities were very much the opposite. Jenn was loud and boisterous while Jamie was quiet and reserved. Eventually, they began to work very well together. Once they recognized the power in each other, they became fast partners. Jamie was assigned to Jenn so Jenn could bring out the potential in her and hone her biotic talent to a razor's edge. The two of them would go on to train biotic candidates together as "Force Ops". Jackson didn't think too highly of it when they proposed that title for their cell, but let it slide when Jamie clued him in on the old Earth movie reference.

It had been a busy first month back at work. Jackson received reports from all his field agents and training officers that everything from recruiting for the support divisions to material procurement was running smoothly. Wholly satisfied, he went home for the first time in a week to be with his family.

At home, he was overly pleased to see that his twins and the Geth twins were meshing very well. The four of them brimmed with curiosity and took every opportunity they could to take in any info around them. The Geth's Primary Consensus had moved forward with the idea of Geth children after Quentin, Elmina, Yavana, and Zane all provided solid proof of concept with their early development.

Since resigning her post on the Admiralty Board, Tali had taken to spending day in and day out with the kids. While she certainly did not miss the battlefield, she yearned to go back to working with tech. She teamed up with Maelon and started Cloning-Adoption Option, a galactic firm to help families expand much the same way the Shepard clan had. They handled gene manipulation cloning for mixed race families as well as adoptions for families that were apprehensive about going the cloning route.

All in all, Jackson could see bright things all around him for he, his family, and his work.

_**Author's Note: This officially ends 'At War's End'. 'Murphy's Law' is already going, and I have started drawing up plans for 'Force Ops'. It will follow Jenn and Jamie as they work together standing up Force Ops at BIOCOM. And a little FYI: Consider all my stories in continuity with each other. Oh, and remember when I said that all writers like to put in a personal touch? Here's another from me. Jamie is my wife's name, Huebert is her maiden name, and Steve is my father in law's name.**_


End file.
